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Editor : K. Macpherson
Assistant Editors : Bryher ; Oswell Blakeston
Published by POOL
London Office : 26 Litchfield Street, Charing Cross Road, W.C.2.
Swiss Office : c/o F. Chevalley, Case Postale, Carouge s/ Geneve.

Contents

PAGE

Cinematography With Tears. S. M. Eisenstein .. .. .. .. .. 3

Pseudomorphic Film. Oswell Blakeston . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Note on 5 Bruguiere Photographs. K.M. .. .. .. .. .. 25

The Year of the Eclipse. H.A.Potamkin 30

Fan Males. Robert Herring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

A Film Actor. Elizabeth Coxhead . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Published Scenarios. Roger Burford .. .. .. .. .. .. 50

Three Paris Films. Jean Lenauer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Japanese Film Problems, 1932 Y. Ogino.. .. .. .. .. .. 61

Reality Isn't True. O. Blakeston and R. Burford .. .. .. .. 67

Cinema Psychology. Clifford Howard . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Beginning of the Year in Germany. A. Kraszna-Krausz . . . . . . 74

Comment and Review : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Facts Only ; The Last of the Silents ; Spectators' Groups in America ;
Tachyscope Daedaleum and Fantoscope ; Publicity Again ; Film-Studio ;
Zurich ; Genossenschaft Filmdienst ; The Lake of the Wild Swans ;
Correction; Men and Jobs; A Technical Achievement ; An Avant-Garde
Film-Show in Vienna ; The Light Within ; The Cartoon Colour- FilrnJ; A
Film School in Geneva ; Book Reviews.

London Correspondent :
Paris Correspondent :
Berlin Correspondent :
Geneva Correspondent :
Hollyzvood Correspondent :
New York Correspondent :
Moscow Colrespondent :
Vienna Correspondent :

Robert Herring
Jean Lenauer
A. Kraszna-krausz
F. Chevalley
Clifford Howard
H. A. Potamkin
P. Attasheva
Trude Weiss

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Vol. X. No. i March, 1933

The Yar, one of the most famous Czarist restaurants in Moscow, now converted into the State Institute

of Cinema.

Le Yar, I'un des restaurants les plus renommes au temps des tsars, transforme actuellement en Institut

d'Etat du Cinema.

Yar, eines der beriihmtesten zaristischen Restaurants in Moskau, jetzt in das staatliche Filminstitut

verwandelt.

CINEMATOGRAPHY WITH TEAKS/

THE WAY OF LEARNING.
By S. M. Eisenstein.

Note. — In our December issue there appeared an article by Eisenstein, entitled,
Detective Work in the GIK (The Moscow State Institute of Cinematography). Here is
continued an account of the methods employed, and our June issue will contain a long and
interesting " case history " in which the film An American Tragedy — which, as most of
our readers are aware, was to have been Eisenstein 's initial American production for
Paramount — is discussed in relation to its significance tutorially and thematically,
deriving from this article and that which preceded it.

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For some time I worried over the almost supernatural powers, tran-
scending common sense and human reason, which seemed indispensable
in order to master " The Mysteries of Udolpho " of creative film production.

Dissection of the music of creative film production.

Dissection — but not as one dissects a corpse.

This is what we have to work at with these young people who come
to us for the 3rd Course at GIK — the State Institute of Cinematography.

We shall approach this matter simplv and not from the standpoint of
preconceived scholastic methods.

And we shall not use the corpses of dead productions for studying
the processes of montage.

The anatomical theatre and the dissecting room are eminently unsuit-
able training grounds for the studv of drama.

And the study of the film is indissolubly connected with the study of
drama.

To build up cinematography, starting from " the idea of the cinemato-
grapher " and abstract principles is barbarous and stupid. Only by
critical comparison with the more stadial early forms of spectacle will it be
possible to acquire a critical mastery of the specific methodology of the
cinema.

" Criticism must consist in comparing and contrasting a given fact
not with an idea, but with another fact ; for this purpose the only important
thing is that both facts should as far as possible be carefully analyzed
and that they should present, in relation to one another, different factors of
development." (Lenin : " Who> are the Friends of the People?" 1894).

We shall study this question in connexion with the living creative
process.

This will be done first of all as follows : —

We shall have to evolve simultaneously the process of work and of
method.

And we shall proceed not, like Plekhanov, from established principles
of method in general to the concrete individual case ; rather we intend, by
means of concrete work on individual material to evolve the methods of
creative film production.

For this purpose we divulge the secret of the " intimate " creative
procedure of the regisseur in all its phases and ramifications.

Many surprises are in store for the youth who is crammed with illusions.

Who has not been enchanted by the classic harmony of the laby-
rinthine structure of " The Count of Monte-Cristo" ?

Who has not been struck by the deadly logic with which the char-
acters and events are woven and interwoven, as though the story had, from
the very outset, been conceived just in this form and with these mutual
relationships ?

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Pudovkin (left), instructing a class at the State Institute of Cinema.
Pudovkin (a gauche) donne des lecons d Flnstitut d'Etat du Cinema.
Pudovkin (links) beim Unterricht irti Staatlichen Filminstitut.

Who, finally, has not pictured to himself the sudden ecstasy kindled
in the mind of the " fat nigger," Dumas, as, with one eagle glance, he
embraced the future framework of the novel in all its details and subtle-
ties . . . with the title, " The Count of Monte-Cristo " blazing on its front?

And yet . . . how stimulating and pleasant to be able to recognize,
by the taste, the cookery with the aid of which such a remarkable composi-
tion was elaborated.

To realize that the work was the outcome of brutal assiduity and not
of divine illumination.

It is, in fact, nigger's work — but not the work of the fat, lazy nigger,
Dumas. It is toil worthy of a negro labourer from the plantations.

Dumas was actually sprung from negro natives of Haiti, like Toussaint
L'Ouverture, the hero of our coming film, " The Black Consul."

The nickname of Dumas's grandfather, General Thomas Alexander,
was " black devil."

And " fat nigger " was a nickname bestowed on Dumas by rivals
and other envious persons.

A certain individual, who concealed his humble baptismal name of
Jacquot beneath the pompous appellation, " Eugene de Mirecourt," wrote
of Dumas :

" Scratch Monsieur Dumas's side and you will find a savage . . . He
breakfasts on a burning-hot potato, taken straight off the fire, and devours

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it without even removing the skin. He is a negro. . ." But, since he
needs for his debaucheries 200,000 francs a year, he hires for his literarv
work anonymous intellectual outcasts and translators, paying them a wage
that would be humiliating even for negroes working under the lash of a
mulatto."

" Your father was black," someone told Dumas to his face. " My
grandfather was a monkey," he answered with a loud guffaw.

To* his friend, Beranger, who had begun to be troubled by the rumours
of the " literary piracy of the ' fat nigger,' " Dumas wrote :

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Shangelaya' s " 26 Commissars," a Georgian Film.
Du film Georgien : " 26 Commissaires," de Shangelaya.
Shangelayas " 26 Kommissare," ein georgischer Film.

" Dear old friend. My only nigger is my left hand, which holds the
book open while my right hand works eighteen hours a day "...

He was slightly exaggerating. He had collaborators,, but — as with
Napoleon — they were generals.

Miracles of composition are merely a question of perseverance and of
time expended in the training period of one's autobiography.

From the point of view of productivity, this period of romanticism was
pre-eminently conspicuous for the dizzy speed of its creative tempo.

In eight days (September 17th to September 25th, 1829) Victor Hugo
wrote 3,000 stanzas of " Hernani," which revolutionized the classical
drama; in twenty-three days he wrote " Marion de Lorme "; in eleven
days, " Lucrezia Borgia " ; in nineteen days, " Marie Tudor " ; in thirty-
four days, " Ruy Bias," etc., etc.

The quantitative output is proportionately great. For instance, the
literary estate of Dumas-Pere comprised 1,200 volumes . . .

And the opportunity of creating such works is accessible to everyone.

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In particular, as regards " The Count of Monte-Cristo."
Here is what Lucas-Dubreton has to say about how it came to be
written :

" In the course of his voyage along the Mediterranean Sea, Dumas
passed near a small island where he was not allowed to go ashore as the
island was ' in an affected state,' and a visit to it would have entailed deten-
tion in quarantine. This was the island of Monte-Cristo. He was struck
by the name at the time. Some time later, in the year 1843, he agreed
with a publisher to write ' Impressions of a Journey through Paris,' but he
needed a romantic plot. One day he had the good luck to' light upon a
story, 20 pages long, entitled ' The Diamond and the Revenge,' referring
to the epoch of the second Restoration and included in Peuchet's volume,
' The Police Unveiled.' Here was the subject about which he had been
vaguely dreaming : Monte-Cristo shall track down his enemies who are
concealed in Paris.

" Then his historical collaborator, Maquet, is fired with the notion of
the love-affair between Monte-Cristo and the beautiful Mercedes and the
treachery of Danglars. And the two friends set off on a new track : ' The

S/iangelaya's " 26 Commissars," a Georgian Film.
D11 film Georgien : " 26 Commissaires," de Shangelaya.
Shangelayas " 26 Kommissare," ein georgischer Film.

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From a new comedy by Barnet — who made the well-known " Girl with a Hat-Box " — entitled " Out-
skirts." Barnet himself appears on left as a peasant.

Cliche d'une nouvelle comedie de Barnet intitulee " Outskirts." Barnet y figure, a gauche, sous les
traits d'un pay son. II est Vauteur de la tres connue : " Fille an carton a chapeaux."

Aus einer neuen Komddie, betitelt " Peripherie," von Barnet, dem Schopfer des zvohlbekannten " Mdd-
chen mit der Hutschachtel." Barnet selbst ist links als Bauer zu sehen.

Count "of Monte-Cristo ' is to be no longer a volume of romantic travel
impressions, but a novel pure and simple.

" The Abbe Faria, a lunatic born at Goa, whom Chateaubriand saw
trying vainly to kill a canary by hypnotizing it, helped to reinforce the
element of mystery, and on the horizon began to loom the outlines of the
Chateau d'lf and the dungeons of Edmond Dantes and the aged Faria . . ."'

That is how works are actually constructed.

And to realize how it is done and actually participate in the process
seems to> me most advantageous and instructive for students.

The element of chance is far less important in this connexion than
might appear, and the element of law within the creative process becomes
palpably perceptible.

There must be method, but a pre-conceived methodological plan will not

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Kuzmina of " New Babylon " and " Alone," who plays the leading part in
Barnet's new film," Outskirts."

L'acteur Kuzmina, connu par ses precedents roles dans " Nouvel/e Baby lone " et
" Seul," est Vinterprere principal du nouveau film de Barnet : " Outskirts "

(Frontieres).

Kuzmina aus " Neu Babylon " und " Einsamkeit," stellt die Hauptrolle in
Barnets neuem Film " Peripherie dur."

yield any fruit. And a tempestuous stream of creative energy uncontrolled
by method will yield still less.

Detailed analysis of the structure of compositions stage by stage re-
veals the most rigid conformity to a law arising out of the basic social and
ideological underlying premises and governing every ramification of the
work .

And the golden fever of commercial activity and money-making which
marks the epoch of Louis-Philippe is also a leading factor in the golden
legend of the fabulously wealthy ex-sailor, now an all-powerful count — a
no less important factor than Dumas's childish recollections of Schehere-
zade and the treasures of Ali Baba.

And the very fact that a sailor might become a count meant that " any-
one " might become a count.

In an age when the pursuit of riches and aristocratic titles was general,
the sailor, Dantes, become the fabulously wealthy Monte-Cristo, served as
an excellent " social ideal " for the bourgeoisie, who were enriching them-
selves at a feverish rate.

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Not without reason is this character surmised to be an idealized self-
portrait.

For Dumas himself, equally with the rest, wallowed voluptuously in
the muddy sea of dubious wealth engendered by questionable speculations
in the reign of " King Bourgeois."

" — A million? That is exactly what I usually carry with me in my
pocket."

This remark symbolizes in a unique degree the unattainable ideal both
of the " fat nigger " himself, who squandered money recklessly and was
literary potentate of the newspaper, feuilleton and dramatic world of the
Paris of that day, and also< of the vast hordes of greedy sharpers and adven-
turers with which Paris was swarming.

However, if we are fully to realize how these social, economic and
ideological premises determine everv slightest variation of form and how
indissolubly they are connected, we must trace out a complete creative cycle
independently and conscientiously from start to finish.

Krutchkov, of the Moscow
Theatre of Young Work-
ers, in " Outskirts."

Krutchkov, du Theatre
desjeunes Travailleurs de
Moscou, dans "Outskirts"
(Frontieres) .

Krutschkov vom Theater
der jungen Arbeiter in
Moskau, in "Peripherie."

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From " The Golden Mountain " a new film by Ermler and Yutkevitch.

" La montagne d'or," nouveau film de Ermler et Yutkevitch.
Aus " Der goldene Berg." Ein neuer Film von Ermler und Yutkevitsch.

Of course, the most interesting of all would be to get hold of another
Goethe or Gogol and set him to compose before the auditorium a 3rd part
of " Faust " or a new second volume of " Dead Souls."

But we have not even a living Alexandre Dumas at our disposal.

Therefore we transform the students of the third course of GIK into
. . . a collective regisseur and film-constructor.

The director is merely a primus inter pares, the first among equals.

# * #

The collective — and, later on, each individual separately — has to work
its way through all the difficulties and torments of creative work, through
the whole process of creative composition, from the first faint, glimmering-
hint of the theme down to the decision whether the buttons on the jacket
of the most insignificant performer are suitable for filming purposes.

The task of the director is merely, by a dexterous and timely shove,
to propel the collective in the direction of legitimate and fruitful difficulties

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and of a just and thoughtful consideration of those questions, the answers
to which lead to the construction of something and not to fruitless chatter
about it.

That is how people are taught to fly in circuses.

The trapeze is held back mercilessly, or the hand is just held out if the
tempo, of the pupil is inexact.

It will do him no harm if he falls wide of the safety net once or twice
and injures himself by falling on to the seats in the auditorium.

He won't do- it next time.

But no less solicitously, at every stage must the helpful material fur-
nished by the knowledge and experience inherited from the past be duly
and opportunely thrust into the hands of confused or nonplussed workers.

But not only that. If one all-embracing synthetic giant is not avail-
able, yet at every new stage there is, beside the inheritance from the past,

From " The Go/den Mountain,"
a new film by Ermler and
Yutkevitch.

" La montagne d'or." nouveau
film de Ermler et Yutkevitch.

Aus " Der go/dene Berg."
Ein neuer Film von Ermler
und Yutkevitsch.

a " living inheritor," who with its aid has made himself a redoubtable
expert in his particular branch.

In the plan for the general course the expert must be invited to deal
with the definite, concrete case, with the particular stage in the evolution
of the creative process where his knowledge is of value.

All this refers to the production of a really big thing, conscientiously
carried out from beginning to end.

For this purpose we bid good riddance once and for all to the system
of displaying studies made by students who have completed their training
— clumsy, unequal productions, as short of intelligence as they are short
in length.

This system must be abandoned as utterly futile.

The art of film-making does not consist in ingenious choice of a cadre
or in unexpected abridgments.

The essential thing in a film is that every item of the picture should
be an organic part of an organically conceived whole.

The pieces made bv the students ought to be organically conceived
and photographed parts of one big, significant and general conception, and
not strav, unrelated studies.

By these several photographed pieces and by the episodes preceding
and following them which are set but not photographed, as well as by the

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working out of montage plans and sheets for the particular parts allotted
to them, the students will be really cured of creative vagueness.

Their work will be controlled from beginning to end, and at the same
time will furnish an effectual indication as to how far they are capable of
giving practical expression to a clearly defined general conception. At this
stage it will not yet be a case of the student's individual conception — but
of a conception which is arrived at collectively and consequently serves the
more effectually as a rigorous lesson in self-discipline.

This self-discipline is still more necessary when the conception becomes
personal and individual.

But before reaching this last stage, this ultimate frontier, which already
borders on after-school production, the students will have to run the gaunt-
let of long rows of living or dead connoisseurs in their several domains.

At a certain stage this will be a long discussion about the type, figure
and character of the principal protagonist. The shades of Balzac, Gogol,
Dostoyevsky or Ben Jonson will be evoked.

The question will arise as to the embodiment of this particular type,
figure and character. Here we rely on the autobiographical confessions of
Kachalov, Batalov, Max Strauch, etc.

Having threaded the mazes of plot-construction and having studied the
Elizabethan dramatists with Aksenov, we listen to Dumas-Pere and Victor

The Deserter," Pudovkins latest sound-film, in zvhich it if said are amazing
technical innovations.
" Le Deserteur," dernier film sonore de Pudovkin, presente, dit-on, a" etonnantes
innovations techniques.
Der Deserteur," Pudovkins letzter Tonfilm, in zcelchem angeblich iiberraschende
technische Neuerungen veruendet wurden.

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A scene from Pudovkin s new film, " The Deserter."
Une scene du nouveau film de Pudoukin : " he Deserteur."
Eine Ssene aus Pudovkins neuem Film " Der Deserteur."

Shklovsky on scenic plot-composition and the methods of Weltmann's
productions.

Then, having studied the dramatic essence of situations with Webster
and Volkenshtein, we pass on to consider how the situation can be clothed
in words.

Aleksey Maksimovich Gorky will probably not refuse to initiate us into
the methods of writing the dialogues of " The Lower Depths " or " Egor
Bulichev." Nikolay Erdman will enlighten us as to how it is done in his
works.

And Babel will tell us about the specifics of formal and of verbal struc-
ture and the technique of extreme laconism — Babel who, perhaps, has a
better practical grasp than anyone else of the great secret that " .... no
iron can enter into the human heart with such stupefying effect as a full
stop opportunely placed."

Inimitable use is made of this laconism in his wonderful " Decline "
— perhaps the best example of the best dramatic dialogue of recent years.

All these things will come up for consideration at corresponding stages
of the progressive and united creative labours of our collective regisseur.

The welding together of the different stages of independent analytical
excursions is nothing very terrible. The building up of the theme and

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the plot can sometimes be completely independent of the verbal treatment.
Do not " Revizor " and " Dead Souls," for instance, afford brilliant
examples of the treatment of subjects propounded from outside?

The question of the musical formulation of the sound medium is a
question of the material medium.

Analysis of a considerable number of other examples of " inheritance
from the past," each from the standpoint of the particular quality which it
specially illustrates, may be extremely instructive.

James Joyce and Emil Zola.

Honore Daumier and Edgar Degas.

Toulouse-Lautrec and Stendhal.

And Marxist and Leninist specialists will analyze lengthily and cir-
cumstantially the question of the correct ideological setting of the problem
from the standpoint of approach to the theme and sociological understand-
ing of the work.

By this means we hope to provide mobilized experience and skilled
support for the guidance of those who have to wrestle with the task of
creating a film.

Soviet Flax," a Meschrabpom-Film, with manuscript and direction by Svorkov, Sadorogny and

- . ■ Kidikov.

Le lin sovietique," film Meschrabpom, manuscrit et regie de Svorkov, Sadorogny et Kidikov.
" Sowjet -Flacks," ein Meschrabpom Film. Manuskript und Regie : Svorkov, Sadorogny und Kidikov.

Skyscraper photographs by Francis Bruguiere.
Photos de gratte-ciel, par Francis Bruguiere.
Wolkenkratzerphotos von Francis Bruguiere.

PSEUDOMORPHIC FILM

" I was at the first-view of the Eisenstein drawings at the Becker
Galleries in New York. In passing it can be remarked how many galleries
in America are run for social publicity. But the Eisenstein drawings are
carried out boldly in black chalk with red for blood. All of the bull-rings
in Mexico. Psychologically interesting as well as artistically."

Francis Bruguiere saw more than the Russian master's sketches in New
York. He has the camera-eye : while on his recent trip, he edited sensa-
tions to pace them with film nerves. His impressions make a Vertoff docu-
ment, scenario-prompting with social consequence.

" Hope, still ! When first you come into New York harbour you see
GASOMETERS. As good as "those of the Gas, Light and Coke" Co. in
England. So progress has been maintained ! Lots of people begin waving
too early at NEW LAND and have to keep it up. Quarantine officers, in
picturesque poses, drift by in their inefficient and dirty boat.

" West Side of New York — isn't this the city which Russia dreams
about? Garbage cans taking wings with escaping paper-filth and kids
playing among the tissues of smells. Cobblestones which never fit the
environment they are supposed to project. Tenement houses with corks
jammed into possibilities of the house-telephones !

" It must always be in a political programme that the subways fares
are five cents, any distance. Folk beg for subway fares in order that they
may keep warm at night. Street cars are getting older and noisier every
year, while the rest of the world gets older and poorer.

" Fifth Avenue. Radk> City (now Rockefeller Centre). Savoy Plaza
Hotel. The broken fountain where the babies of the rich' are laid in tiers
to play. The banks where the whole staff act a show, turning over flower
catalogues and such, if you go in to do any business. . . There is only
this small section of New York which sets out to make eye-dazzle with sky-
scrapers : if you look up at the skyscrapers your eyes become blinded with
anthracite dust ! The higher you live in a skyscraper, and avoid more smells
of petrol and noise, the more expensive it is : there are clouds round the
tops of some of the buildings. Rates have been halved : people pay in
writing ! Still, the Empire State Building, which was built to take 80,000
people, has only 300 tenants. Silent City of the Air ! This is the end of
skyscraper construction in New York — at least for some time. Nights
bring dark, unoccupied skies ! Interior lighting, to match the world de-
pression, is universally amber !

"Streets of New York, to-day! On the sidewalks someone always
slips dead to the pavement — starvation cases. Organised rackets : one man
rescues a passer-by from a bully. If the passer-by does not show gratitude
with a money gift, a third pal approaches and lays him flat.

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" Traffic in the roadway runs by lights. No driver looks at pedes-
trians, only lights. He who does not give his whole time to calculating

the lights well, the papers publish a charming little clock called The

Hands of Death .... In the taxis, as in the hotels, eternal radios play
advertisements. Taxi boys are interested enough in the world depression
to shout across the streets to foot-travellers — some of the things thev have
to offer !

" Police cars clang past. Police use machine-guns, not pistols. I saw-
one gunman caught. Three standing near were shot down. Other
civilians paniced against walls and called out to the police, " We are not
communists, we are not communists ! . . . Fire engines sweep by : every
hour there is a fire !

" From the Plaza stretches Central Park. Its stunted trees and rock-
grown grass are generally covered with the 365 pages of the Sunday news-
paper. There is no money to clean it up. They have made a film of it.

" There are so many lights under the canopies of Broadwav's cinemas
that the Broadway smell is quite one of the worst of New York's particulars.
The morons, who ever tramp up and down Broadway, like best burlesque
shows which are called ' strippers ' : girls undress while comedians make
jokes about fairies.

" In a rush now — because this pseudomorphic film is out-running its
footage . . . There are no garages : you pay the policeman . . . There are
one or two speakeasies off Broadway where one may walk up a sweeping
staircase like a gentleman or a lady or both and peer down at statues of
Dante. Most speakeasies, though, are popular because they are dirty and
old : the aristocratic houses of yesterday with holes in the carpets. Weak
California Wine . . . Harlem : concentration on music — then what a lot of
spitting ! . . . What has been done for justice in New York has been done
by the Jewish people . . .

" Anyway, I feel that skyscrapers are only successful when they are
not architecture, when they have no Renaissance tops. That is why I hope
this account mav have slight virtue."

O. B.

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Note on Five Brugiiiere Photographs

This, and the following four photographs by Francis Bruguiere, must speak for
themselves, for no words — except perhaps in the Greek poems translated by H. D. — could
be needed, or indeed justified.

In their conception of noble paradox they achieve a mysticism which is certainly more
than ephemeral. Bringing together expressions of the loftiest heights of human aspira-
tion and heights romanticised by expediency, they succeed in merging, in becoming
dissociated memoirs of hieratic impact.

Close Up has probably not printed before pictures so intrinsically dynamic, so innately
motivated and complete. Impressionistic, in the simplest sense of the word, they inform
the parallelism of classic divergences with a unity which to those who pursue their ideals
along the mellow paths of antiquity will be rare sustenance.

From the inscrutable Attic goddess and sky-line temple with its sacred olives, sheep
and quiet sea and pale sea-monastery tilting over all, to Byzantium and cinquecento
Florence, to the ritually crucified lord-of-all against what looks like latish Roman walls,
is, as they say, a far cry. Yet the same transcendentalism occurs in each. Incidentally,
the " latish Roman walls " are a bit of a mystery. Those columns. In the Pelasgic
walls, marbles of different periods — later, of course — are to be found, as in the grotto above
the Theatre of Dionysus — or the fortress-like clumsy Roman Odeon. But these walls
are not prehistoric, far from it. And yet the columns do not appear to be superimposed.
We shall have to ask Mr. Bruguiere . . .

K. M.

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28 CLOSE UP

THE YEAR OF THE ECLIPSE

I shall use quotations from my correspondence to Close Up's last number
for 1932 as keys to my first correspondence to 1933, since what I have to say
grows frjom " Dog Days in the Movie." " The movie of delirium tremens
— on near beer !" . . . The outlook for 3.2 per cent, brew is good. The
difference between the promised and the present " near beer " brand is the
quantity of hope in American breasts, deceived into that hope by the promise
of a prosperity that will follow upon the liquidation of prohibition. Hoax
upon hoax — the vision of the desperate ! And the movie is its immediate
image. It reads concoction as experience, the momentarily effective as the
memorable, or neglects the quality of the memory altogether. I asked :
Is there really a fool born every minute, and how long can the movie wait
till lie grows up, or shall it get him while he is still young?" (The printer
put down " young " as " Avrong " — not an inaccurate error.) The fool
to-day is not constantly foolish, his reaction cannot be counted upon as
certainly as in earlier days. 1932 was the year of the eclipse, astronomically
and in the cinema. Not even the attractiveness of Marlene Dietrich sus-
tained Blonde Venus; it was removed from the Paramount Theatre before
its engagement was really over. The crowd was as wise as the critic. The
critic should have been wiser : he should have seen Blonde Venus in The
Blue Angel and foretold the inevitable. Sternberg may succeed Pommer
at U.F.A. That is ironical, because what is creditable in to-day's Sternberg
is really Pommer.

* # *

The most painful partial eclipse was that of Lewis Milestone. Although
Tom Buckingham was the accredited director of Cock o' the Air and Nate
Watts the accredited supervisor, Mr. Milestone had a great deal to do with it.
Its wretchedness was partly due to the delicate interference of the Hays
troupe. But I am puzzled by the puerility of a field-general like Milestone,
who uses his prestige and authority, his talent, to toss off rowdyisms stodgy
and unprovocative. The fault seems to be the desire to repeat a previous
success, Two Arabian Knights, just as in Rain, Milestone seems to have
wanted another tour de force like The Front Page, a film of major import-
ance in the history of the compound cinema. Others have observed two
of Mr. Milestone's limitations : his belief that speech should be uninter-
rupted, his inabilitv to direct women. The first limitation deserves studv.
In The Front Page Milestone correctly gauged the quantity of speech and
its velocity (the relation of speech to visual-motor density) and thereby,
for the first time, presented the principle that though the plane of correlation
in the cinema is visual-motor, the vocal element in the compound may, if
the subject-matter requires, set the pace for the unit. In this particular film
(Milestone's milestone) the vehicle gave the cargo an appearance of sub-

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Seeing others as we see them ourselves. On rare occasions only ! An ingenious,
if rather disquieting series of publicity stills of the Marx brothers — probably
only two of the four, but we leave it to you !

Points de vue exceptionnels . Serie de cliches publicitaires aussi ingenieux
quinquietants des Freres Marx — deux? quatre? devinez-le !

Andere sehen, wie man sie selbst sicht. Nur bei seltenen Gelegenheiten !
Eine geistreiche, wenn auch beunruhigende Reihe von Photos der Marx Brothers —
wahrscheinlich nur szvei von den vieren, aber wir uberlassen es Ihnen.

stance. Indeed, I half-suspect that the director recognized that the play
had more appearance than substance : it was a typical Ben Hecht imposture,
garbling half-truths and circumstantial data into the semblance of an indict-
ment. The glamour of the vehicle rendered the cargo glamorous until the

-32

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end, when the vehicle could shatter itself and leave no memory, save that
of a principle of construction — valuable to the practician but not to the
audience. In Rain such treatment would find the resistance of a more sullen
material, pseudo-psychology, picturesqueness, mood. The interferences
cris-crossed to make a picture that seemed to fall apart with' every scene, and
yet — it was not quite so condemnatory of Milestone as some would have us
believe. Elements of sternness were present and, if the iegiseur's inability
to direct women was apparent, it served to show up Joan Crawford. - With-
out her accustomed M.G.M. directors and flattering cameramen, she be-
came, as someone said, " a female impersonator." The chief . fault in the

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case of Milestone is one of conscience : he is not sufficiently insistent upon
the important subjects he can command and direct.

* * *

There were other temporary eclipses. The entire industry has been
operating in the dark. Joseph I. Breen of the Hays office enumerates the
besetting evils thus : The industrial depression ; Too many theatres ; Com-
petition by other forms of entertainment such as radio and dog racing ;
Destruction of the illusion surrounding screen personalities by too intimate
revelations in the fan magazines; A lack of big personalities on the screen.
. . . Not a word about the films themselves ! However, those in the in-
dustry itself recognize that something is wrong with the product. They
do' not read the difficulty as harshly as I have read it : "... the courage of
facing reality and elucidating it in the movies." They call it " topical films "
It is interesting to see how the different studios interpret the topical.
Columbia, the latest recruit to the Hays organization, issues completely dis-
honest pictures like American Madness and Washington M erry-Go-Round .
The latter boasts of a " courage " that insults the unemployed veterans,
who have no* representative in either Washington or Hollywood. Less
sychophantic films are those produced by Warner Brothers, a previously
dull studio that has awakened with some vigor to the current scene. Jack

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Warner, production chief, announces that: " Newspapers will be watched
this year as the}- were last for ideas and plots."

We may divide these topical films into two categories : social segment
films, personality films. Unfortunately, the individualistic, star-systema-
tized cinema makes no strenuous effort to make one of the two, which is the
Soviet intention. Of the Warner pictures the two that come nearest to this
unification are : The Cabin in the Cotton and I am a Fugitive. This
approximation is made possible by two facts : these are not stories about
" prodigious " personalities (as in the case of The Match King and Silver
Dollar) where the social happening is popularly obscured by the quasi-
legendarv figure ; they are stories haying widespread reference quicklv dis-
cernible in the current scene. Because they have widespread reference, it is
worth our while to see how this reference is handled in the film. The Cabin
in the Cotton is not an exceptionally arresting film in its direction, its central
person is earnestly but not vibrantly enacted by Richard Barthelmess,
remnant of the Griffith camp, but its subject-matter is the most important
the American film has risked in vears. It is the class-struggle. Does this
mean, however, that the movie has yielded its restriction on films of the
struggle between capital and labor? Not at all. The newsreels still keep
out clips that might refer to that warfare, the steel trust has time and time
again stipulated that it will not permit the use of its premises to enact that
struggle. A film like Taxi was not borne along its logical motif of the
struggle between the taxi-trust and the privately-owned taxi. I understand
Cagney wanted such a story, but it was rejected as being "labor v. capital" !
I know a young man in the publicity department of one of the largest com-
panies who wrote a scenario situated in Pittsburgh. His scenario won him
a job in the editorial department, but the scenario itself was rejected as
being too much on the labor-theme, although the author was very careful to
keep any semblance of that theme remotely in the background, where every-
thing important is usually kept (in the capitalistic cinema). And then there
was the controversv over the Boulder (Hoover) Dam scenario', when the
delegated scenarists found " forced labor " in the American enterprise. The
net result of the controversv was two scenarists " canned " and a
strengthening" of the dictum against " capital-labour films."

The class-struggle as expressed in The Cabin in the Cotton is agrarian.
The action is set in a locale not the most remunerative to the film, not the
most influential in effecting opinion and not on the most intimate terms with
industrial and finance capital. Observe that no tie-up is made between the
agrarian and the industrial South, a tie-up very real to-day in our economic
Society. Our world is an industrial one basically, and it is in the basic seg-
ment that no studv is even remotely attempted. Therefore, while the movie
will dare an / am a Fugitive, it renders prison-life in the industrial North as

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Blast furnace in the film " Komsomol ."
Haut-fourneau, du film " Komsomol."
Hochofen, aus dem Film " Komsomol."

truly reformative (idealistic penology) in 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, a prepos-
terous title for another story of a self-sacrificing racketeer. Further separa-
tion occurs in The Cabin in the Cotton, the Negro sharecropper and tenant-
farmer from the white. The only presence of a Negro is in the blind singer
who chants as he passes the jazz-festive home of the planter. Yet the out-
standing phenomena of the agrarian South to-day are the revolutionary self-
assertion of the Negro peon, the class-amity between erstwhile foes, black
and white dispossessed. Amity is urged in this film, not intra-class-amity
(as in Kameradschaft) but inter-class amity (as in Phvllis Bender's novel,

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" Inheritance "). And who is to effect this impossible conciliation? The
hyphenate, whose father has been cheated and sent to an early death by the
planter who is now the son's benefactor because he recognizes in the boy
profitable material. In politics the hyphenate is easily characterized, in an
ostensibly non-political novel or film he is not so readily stamped — he be-
comes first pitiable then heroic — when he shows up the greed of the one
" bad " planter in order to have him shake hands with the tenants. A
proper conclusion would have been the boy's assumption of tenant-leader-
ship against the planter. Two falsehoods are presented to strengthen the
drama of conciliation : the tenants steal the planters' cotton and seek to set
up their own broker in Memphis (how long could a tenant conceal the bales
before he were apprehended?), the collaborator of the hyphenate in making
the peace is the district attorney — an agent of the planters who is presented
as a friend of the tenants ! There are other details equall}- suspect. Yet,
it would be sectarian and dishonest not to say that this film, in its argu-
ment and mood, balances the sympathy to the credit of the tenants. That
is assuredly a victory ! a concession to a rising temper. The tenants are
faciallv well-chosen, not non-professional players but professionals chosen
and controlled upon the documentary principle — director Curtiz has evi-
dently learned something from the Russians. For the first time, in my
immediate recollection, the movie has dared to approach lynching as a
contemporary American custom. Here the victim is a white peasant who
has been sorely driven to the murder of a planter. More should have been
made of the scene since it submits the climax to the hyphenate's evolving
attitude. We must recognize also that this is not a typical instance. The
tvpical instance is lynching not on a " real " but a framed charge; the most
frequent instances are the organized mob-murders of Negroes, but that is
an indisputable fact to which our conscience is too sensitive — we can argue
the lynching in The Cabin in the Cotton as rare and therefore chance. Still,
the incomplete presentation of the pursuit and lynching of a white man by
wealthy men of his own race is an incipient suggestion of the fact that
lynchings are economic. Therefore, for all its distortion of the social theme
it particularizes, The Cabin in the Cotton is an advance in the movie's con-
tent. A more truthful production would have sought its material in works
like Georgia Nigger, To Make my Bread, Call Home the Heart, Strike ! or
Gathering Storm.

% ^

As a work of cinema, I am a Fugitive from a (Georgia) Chain-Gang, is
superior to The Cabin in the Cotton. Its voting director, Mervyn Le Roy,
is as yet an eclectic of the second or third order. He has made as bad a
film as Numbered Men, films as inflated for their tiny intelligence as Big
City Blues and Three on a Match, and pictures as reputable as Little Ccesar,
Five-Star Final and I am a Fugitive. His career is an argument for the
importance of content : the better the story, the better has been his direc-
tion I Le Roy is gifted in the American open-play tradition that has been

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A KMrghiz flute-player watches the city groicing out of the steppe. From

" Komsomol."

Un joueur de flute kirghize contemple la naissance d'une cite dans la steppe.
Du film " Komsomol."

Ein kirgisischer Flotenspieler sieht zu, wie die Stadt aus der Steppe ivachst. Aits

" Komsomol."

deserted by von Sternberg", but which Milestone enlivened in The Front
Page. His last films show Le Roy's indebtedness to Milestone, but he
has not the older man's proficiency in timing. If the talkie has damaged
anything in the American idiom, it is its metric. I do not lament this dis-
turbance for it serves to break up the confounding of time with speed-unin-
terrupted action. In / am a Fugitive Le Roy shows skill in the alternations
of speech and silence, but he fails to convev lapse of time, despite his use
of the archaic calendar-leaves (an archaism improved somewhat bv the coin-
cidence of hammer-beat) and distance (which must be conveyed conjointly
by space of time) by means of an inanimate, inexpressive map. Le Roy
exhibits the Milestone weakness in his direction of women ; he was success-
ful with Aline MacMahon in Five-Star Final because she is a superior player
with a masculine emphasis (her roles are " hard "). The young director
was more successful in the sensational or spectacular scenes (although the
second escape was, in its scenario, quite routine), and less successful in the
scenes awav from prison — as in the period of the fugitive's rise to success.
This attests to the immaturity not alone of Le Roy, but also of the American
movie-mind. Le Roy's faults are as much environmental as personal. They

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H. P. J. Marshall (left foreground) and Joris Ivens (right) on the top of Magnet
Mountain during the filming of their picture, " Magnetogorsk."

H. P. J. Marshall (devant, a gauche) et Joris Ivens (a droite) au somniet de la
Montague Magnet, pendant la realisation de leur film : " Magnetogorsk."

H. P. J. Marshall (im Verdergrund links) und Joris Ivens (rechts) auf der Spitze
des Magnetbergs, wiihrend der Aufnahmen zu ihrem Film " Magnetogorsk."

arise from the American aspiration to be momentarily effective, which coin-
cides with the unwillingness to be thorough in the treatment of social
material. Five-Star Final overpitched its tragedy — stretched it beyond the
point of elasticity — neutralized the indictment with humor and terminated
the drama with a cute remark. Of competence there was much, a compet-
ence of verve and of a quality superior to the blue-print workmanship of a
Frank Capra, for instance. I am a Fugitive is too spectacular at times, the
chain-gang is clustered in two sequences of the film to serve as a lavish
background for the innocent prisoner plaved honorablv by Paul Muni. By
the end of the picture we are thinking not at all of the chain-gang but of the
fugitive, and mainly because he has been made a man of the hour whose
hour is destroyed by the vindictiveness of a state, which breaks the promise
exacted by the insistence of the popular voice. It is in its characterization
of the state (through governor et al) that the picture achieves its main im-
portance. Were it not for the inspired conclusion, when the fugitive's
agonized face disappears in the mist, I doubt that the antecedent action would
be recalled. Not often does a last image work retroactively in favor of the
narrative. The " shocker " at the end of The Public Enemy is memorable
solely for its own violence. . . The reason for the existence of a medievalism

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like the chain-gang is not indicated in / am a Fugitive, as it was in Hell's
Highway. If these two films could have been mixed for their better ele-
ments the complete chain-gang picture might have been realized. The
latter film was begun by Rowland Brown and, by its first part, reassured
us that we were not wrong in admiring that director's initial picture, Quick
Millions. He seems to have the surest, cleanest directorial hand of anv new-
comer in the last several years, and is as resistant to curleycues as he has
been to the film hierarchy. The original scenario of Hell's Highway had
in authors Samuel Ornitz and Brown, two socially-conscious individuals,
and that possibly accounts for the fact that the film lias a base to start from :
the chain-gang exists for the private contractor that he may have cheap
labor for his competitive bid. It is this fact that I am a Fugitive needs. How-
ever, Hell's Highway absolves the state from connivance in the sweat-box;
Fm a Fugitive provides the state as nemesis. In the latter also, a cause,
unemployment, leads to a result, the chain-gang, in the instance of the
central person ; in the former there is no such relationship, and the central
person is a cliche. Neither film avoids the picturesque, particularly in the
Negro singing — operatic in the Le Roy film, vaudevillian in the Brown.
Unless the singing can be related with penetration to the setting, it is
dangerous diversion and is better omitted. Similarly, the scene in the hang-
out in the Le Roy film between the runaway and the sympathetic girl is
better omitted than presented hurriedly and lacking in the essential quali-
ties of tenderness and poignancy, for which the film has not prepared the
way and from which there is no development. In its literalness, the Ameri-
can movie includes every episode and renders too kaleidoscopic a film de-
manding scrutiny. But, for all irs insufficiencies, / am a Fugitive is an
advance in American film-content and to that extent its form is shaped.
Will it be a jumping-off place for more progressive films or an end-stop?
Indications point to renewed concessions by the social segment film to the
aggrandisement of the personage who should be the character-convergent
for the happenings. Though The Match King does contain some probable
Kreuger data verv glibly set into motion in the effrontery of Kroll (" Kr "
from Kreuger "oil " from Toll) it is a delectable cad we get and not a
peak-phenomenon of egregious economy in collapse. Anv suggestion of a
possible deduction of general pertinence is subdued, although in the bribery
of the Polish minister something did slip through. Silver Dollar is the tale
of an all-to-human superman and not the striking instance of the battle of the
financiers. The defeat of silver is treated almost as a hastily improvised
snubbing of Yates Martin (H. A. A. Tabor in reality), whose vulgarity, we
are somehow left to feel, brought on the defeat.

January '3rd. H. A. Potamkin.

FAN MALES

We write and write, we what-are-called critics (it is a pity there is no
word that means " scientific enjoyer "), and we develop our theories,
which may or may not be true, because we don't often meet the Men Who
Do Things, who, consequently, Know.

So> what can it mean to us when Lubitsch, Lloyd and Father Fair-
banks are to be seen and spoken to? What shan't we learn, what tips
shan't we pick up, what general idea not form? Listen and see. Taking
them in order; first, Lubitsch.

The Savoy. A swelegant room, clustered with film-critics at tea, who
either nibble sandwiches as if they were steaks or else say " No gee-gaws
for me," and fall to discussing this morning's show or yesterday's
" Express " article. Repeated again and again, a cunning use of sound,
rises and buzzes what each of them knows, " These ' do's ' are no use to
me." .... All very back-scene of a Lubitsch comedy. What a pity
Jeannette Macdonald isn't a lady film-critic. No one thinks of that. They
would make Chevalier one instead. We are told Herr Lubitsch is sorry
to be late, he is in his bath. What a pity it is not Jeannette Macdonald
we are waiting to see, swinging in on a portable grand staircase she
brings out of her bag, or maybe being wheeled in in her bath, singing.
. . . The doors open, and it is not she. No>, it is the power behind her
throne. Lubitsch the eulogised, the approved, the understood, the suc-
cessful. The master. He is small, dark, suggesting olive-wood and
olive-oil. Suggesting also a leprechaun, with his bright little eyes, his
darting movements, small, genial, sly. He goes round each tea-table.
That is very polite. No mass-introduction for him. Then he retires to a
corner and the tea-table occupants swoop to him in a rush, leaving the
tables, as they have long left the plates, empty. That would be a prettv
shot .

And what does he say, what does he think, this man whose Love
Parade set the film free again from sound, whose every film has added
some new point of style to> screen-vocabulary? He says that Herbert
Marshall has a mellowness and malleability which are rare to find in a
man; that he has no wish to make an operatic film, for opera is old-fash-
ioned now, " even in the opera-house." He talks of the way he found
Jeannette Macdonald. There were no singie stars in Hollywood to suit.
Eighty tests were taken of stage stars in New York. Lubitsch saw
twenty; the twentieth was Jeannette Mac; he hopped on a train
for Chicago, where she was performing, so as to see her assured and at
home in her medium. From this emerges the fact that tests are cold, and
do not bring out just the facet of personality you may want. Actors have
to be seen doing their stuff, confident and at work. He says that he
wants no more technical innovations; we have enough, and he wants to

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Asta Nielsen in her first sound-film, " Vera Holgk and Her Daughter." A Mdrkische-Film, directed
by Erich Waschneck. Photos by Hans Caspar ins.

Asta Nielsen dans son premier film parlant : " Vera Holgk et sa fille." Un film Mdrkische realise par
Erich Waschneck. Photos de Hans Casparius.

Asta Nielsen in ihrem ersten Tonfilm " Vera Holgk und ihre Tochter." Ein Mdrkischer Film : Regie
Erich Waschneck. Photos von Hans Casparius.

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learn how to use them. (See Trouble in Paradise, one agrees that he
seems to know every trick.) Here, in this statement, a hint that he sees
all the paraphernalia of the studio, screen and laboratory and cutting-room
as writers see words, to be combined, to be juxtaposed, to be put
into order, to make of that order something none of them have separatelv,
together. .For the rest, what does one get ? The idea back of his mind
in his work? Methods? Ambitions? Naturally not. Who is going
to give anything away? I said, a sly guy. An emigrant effect. Small,
witty, and not outwardly winning. Clearly, he will plav in his work with
the splendour and space he did not have at the start and which even now
are not quite real to him. Shut doors .... how marvellous to open them !
Staircases . . . how wonderful to> be able to come down and not feel ridi-
culous ! Back of all, fear — wrapped up in size. Defence motive. And
then at the last, the statement that the " Lubitsch touch " (I know, but it
was inevitable) is worked out on paper. Only very rarely is there
improvisation.

I get the same from Harold Lloyd. He too is in his bath. I met
his secretary, who is not much further advanced than himself. Reason —
they only arrived from France last night. Suitcases, labels, piled clothes
litter the Dorchester decor. The phone goes. Some paper has said Mr.
Lloyd will appear at some cinema with Jack Pavne. That is a good one.
Mr. Lloyd will appear at no cinema and does not know who' Jack Payne
is. That also is a good one. For Jack Payne. The clock goes on. The
secretary, who' might also- be his bodyguard, talks. The Dorchester's
smallest page-boy comes in with the world's largest typewriter. It is an-
nounced that Mr. Llovd will soon be readv. We light our second cigar-
ette. The secretary is by this time tying his tie. Did I say he was
dressing? Lloyd comes in, in a pale blue tailored dressing gown, shoots
to a dressing-stool, apologises with a brief recital of night-life, and asks
what sort of story we would like. I tell him, and out of it comes, first, the
fact that he too- does not improvise. (I am sure these facts will be greeted
with wild excitement by amateur film societies). Welcome Danger was
begun in the middle, worked back to the start, and then, then the end was
devised. That cannot be done with talkies. All gags are worked out on
paper now. " If you improvise in talkies, vou'd have1 to start improvising
vour audience." Shooting does not take long. It is the story that takes
the time — finding it and preparing it. By that time, news has got round
and other studios are making similar stories. There were two stories
bought before Movie Crazy was hit on.

It appears that Llovd hankered after the storv eventuallv made by
Keaton as Speakeasily . It was not a Keaton part, and Keaton knew it.
It was a Lloyd part, but Metro had it, and would not let Lloyd buy it.
Instead, they offered him the part. Being tied up with Paramount, he
^ould not accept. So Speakeasily was made, unrecognisable from the

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story as it had attracted him, missing" the possibilities he'd seen in it, but
using enough of the framework to prevent him doing anything similar.

A few points on Movie Crazy emerged. It has seventy per cent,
action, and thirty per cent, dialogue, which he thinks about right. I sug-
gested that is because the thirty per cent, talk is already tolerably well ex-
plained by -the action. He agreed maybe. Movie Crazy has been a great
success in all countries, both dubbed and sub-titled. It is being made in
a French version. He takes great impetus from this, feeling that he now
knows what lines to work on for comedies with the same appeal in each
country, and confessing that he was completely in the dark before.* He
is all agog to' get back and start on his new one.

Lloyd invented the pre-view. That idea has been copied so much
that popping a new picture into- a programme is no longer a surprise. For
Movie Crazy, he tried a new test. He showed it to an audience of deaf
mules. They found only two places which baffled them. This, and his
foreign observation, have convinced him that he is on the right track. He
chinks talk has helped comedies more than dramas, because a comedy
must always have action, and SO' comedians are thus saved from
the temptation of being too literally " hundred per cent, talkie."

Fresh from Cannes, he declared that Pabst had " a very fine film "
in Kee Hotay. I gathered that he was slightly surprised at the scale on
which Pabst was working, that he admired his direction of two versions
simultaneously, was impressed by the sets, and thought George Robev
was the actor taking Robey's part in the French version.

To talk to, Lloyd is gay, unaffected, enthusiastic and non-stop. He
does not talk of theories, but has a strong working-sense. At the same
time, he admits that no amount of money or revision can help a film if he
himself does not " click " in it at the start. L'nlike friend Fairbanks, he
does not talk of " a story in which I can express myself," but of " the
right story for me." And, also unlike Fairbanks, does not feel in the
least " finished."

So now let's step over to the Ritz. (Even if one doesn't learn much,
well, not so much from these film-guys, one certainly learns the insides of
hotels). And where is Mr. Fairbanks? The bathroom door is open, so
he cannot be pulling that gag. Wait. For twenty minutes. Then in
breezes, Mr. Fairbanks, takes the floor to the manner born, brims with
geniality and never stops talking; while I think he gets more like Don
Alfonso every day. Which is no doubt what he wants.

Mr. Fairbanks discusses himself in terms of rhythm and tempo. This
is very interesting ; but it is a pity one gets so- swept away that when one
sees his films, one looks for too> much. Mr. Fairbanks is wise not to wait
for Mr. Robinson Crusoe. Last time he was over, it was all " formula "
he was looking for. That quest is abandoned. Films have their old

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" Babes in the Wood." Drawings by Walt Disney for a new Technicolor " Silly Symphony."
" Bebes au bois," dessins de Walt Disney, de la serie Technicolor " Silly Symphonies."
" Babies im Wa/d." Zeiehnungen von Walt Disney fiir eine neue Technicolor " Silly Symphony."

mobility and perhaps more, but he, he has " not quite the neces-
sary abandon." He is complimented on his graceful retirement, but
denies it, hedging with " suspended activity," but admitting that
the films he throws off in his spare time are " sops to> his conscience "
(they'd lie heavy on mine, but then, I'm not an athlete). All the talk is a
very good line and mixed up with remarks about Words and Music
travel, London (" the only town where depression is laughed at. Your
night-clubs are full, everything's going on in excellent shape, magnificent,
great, fine "), it makes a grand noise and keeps one busy scribbling.

It boils down to- the fact that the Fairbanks tempo> which he thought
was beyond talkie, he now thinks is beyond him. A delicately wistful
Mr. Fairbanks, combining the boyishness of the Upper Fifth with the
savoir-faire of the Upper Ten. Mary comes through on the 'phone, and
he has to dress for his second visit to Words and Music, so we leave.

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The most interesting fact was that, answering my anxious enquiry as
to Japanese talkies and refusing to be pinned down to a study of Oriental
cinema that he did not make, he says the Japanese cannot have enough
English-speaking talkies. They attend with dictionary and grammar, to
study English. Heaven help them if they hit Lilian Harvey or Leslie
Fuller ! Put there's plenty to learn from Japan, if not from the fan males,
the boys we are mad about, the actual touch with the studio. For what
have we learnt? Nothing at all, unless we have been able to get a picture
of the man to see behind the next film each of them makes. Well, you
don't expect film-men to discuss their ideas. That's what they make film
from. And meanwhile, almost unnoticed by the press, two German
cameramen were in London, ending their task of quite simply filming the
British Isles. With the help of the Travel Association, Herren Koch
and Lutz, of the Doering-Film-Werke, Hannover, spent three months
filming factories, places of scenic or historic interest, for a sound-film of
7,000 feet to be shown on the Ufa circuit through the German-speaking
countries and Norddeutscher Lloyd liners. They shot 25,000 feet .... a
straight, serious film, with no fun about Air. This or That, no sham story
or artificial adventure. They said they found nothing in England the
least like Germany ; their film should bring out a detached view of this
country. They were most struck by English friendliness, English coun-
try, the bad coffee and the good whiskey. An English version of this film,
made with full co-operation of big firms, factories and authorities, and
undertaken with a purpose, will be prepared for this country. Two gossip-
notes ; Herr Koch, allowed in the guard's van for shots, hung his coat by
mistake on the emergency brake, and the train stopped. The train was
the Flying Scotsman. And — they got the King returning from Sandring-
ham, but are not allowed to use it, as you may not photograph Royalty
unawares; so bits from news-reels, made with permission, will be put in
instead. Says We, if I may say so.

Robert Herring.

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The first Yiddish film by Shpiss, " The Return of Nathan Becker."
" he retour de Nathan Becker," premier film Yiddish de Shpiss.
Der erste jiddische Film von Shpiss, " Die Riickkehr des Nathan Becker."

A FILM ACTOR

Everyone theorises about film direction in these days; acting is left
oddly alone. We praise this or that player; we are agreed that Jannings,
Krauss, Kortner, a few others, are great actors ; we go no further. But in
the intervals of seeing and admiring their films, we faintly suspect that film
acting is no good. In the principle there is something wrong. Pudovkin,
when he raised his " Out with the Actor " cry, matched a suspicion that
was already there. The documentary, the travel-film, the German peasant
idyll and the Soviet mass idyll, offered a kind of escape, but not exactly a
solution, for we felt that it would be foolish to restrict to them the field of
the cinema. Meanwhile the films of great acting go on, and we go to
them, and grow more and more suspicious.

From the plaver's point of view, the art is undoubted ; but from the
point of view of cinema . . . ? Look at Laughton in Payment Deferred,
at Jannings in almost any of his star-films, the end of The Blue Angel, for

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instance ; is that cinema ? You may blame it on the director, say he should
have dominated them, controlled them; but could he? Can anyone inter-
fere with great realistic acting, a patiently constructed edifice, which the
removal of one brick would bring crashing down in ruins?

All questions with no answer : and yet it is an important matter : it is,
in fact, at the very root of a world-cinema which is basing itself on great
realistic acting, or the nearest approach to that ideal which it can manage.
Must the actor stay to make only rubbish, and the documentaries and
abstractions share between them all the film meaning in the world ?

In Germany, a long time ago as it now seems, they had an Expres-
sionist school, chiefly on the stage but tricking now and then on the screen,
where Caligari was its fine flower. It did silly things, and was soon dated,
but it produced a theory of film acting which has since been almost lost.
It has, in fact, only one successful and influential screen survivor, one actor
who works out its principles all by himself — Conrad Yeidt. And Yeidt
has developed away from it since the days of Caligari, the days when Rein-
hardt and Wiene and Galeen and the rest of them believed in light and
line, symbol and angle. But he has not developed in the directions of
the realists; that is the point.

Its own supporters could not define Expressionism ; you may call it
plastic symbolism, if you like; impressionism would be a closer word. Its
aim boiled down to this ; the imagination of the audience must be stimu-
lated to do most of the work for itself. The designer gave us a black wall,
a grey wall, and a white hole; we saw a sinister attic lit by a rav of hope.
The director made us peer from above on a pale slit of an allev, with four
scudding figures; we saw a whole town in uproar. And the actor, in his
turn, gave us the minimum ; a single wide gesture, a shoulder, a back,
replaced all the painstaking close-ups in which great realistic acting gets
itself across.

And it worked — that was the miracle. It matched a principle inherent
in the cinema — the principle of suggestion. For we know that after the
very early days when the cinema was praised for showing us evervthing
where the stage could show only a part, it was found that the real ad-
vantage of the cinema was to show only a part where the stage showed
everything. It is, in fact, a highly eclectic form, and thus leaves to* the
imagination the extraordinary scope which makes a great film our most
stimulating intellectual exercise. It is essentiallv austere ; it gives us the
minimum : we do the rest for ourselves. The Russian cinema is one long
sermon on this theme.

This, perhaps, is why we feel that realistic acting will not do. It goes
counter to this idea of suggestion. It takes us step by step, pedantically,
along a road we could travel alone. The Expressionist actor matched his
medium. Conrad Veidt matches it to-day. In spite of his development
towards an inevitably more human and personal technique ; we never, even

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in his least successful films, have that embarrassing sense of something
incongruous, brilliant but foreign to the medium, true to life but not to the
life of the screen.

Age your Expressionist, soften him by sympathy and experience, and
you have a romantic. Indeed, Expressionism, underneath its brilliantly
intellectual surface, contained alreadv the elements of romance. Yeidt is
now a romantic actor; he is at home in the costume fairy-tale of The Last
Company or The Black Hussar, though he has more to give than they
can take. Planted among the English drawing-room cast of Rome
Express, he takes on the disconcerting air of a naughty magician, throw-
ing the film's Baedeker realism out of focus whenever he appears. But in
the hands of a sympathetic German director, who understands his peculiar
quality, can develop and exaggerate his very unrealitv — his great physical
height, the drawn mask of his face, the rhvthm of his gestures, above all,
his power of translating into broad movement and not into look or speech
the emotions of a part — Yeidt stands alone as the one perfectly cinematic
actor on the screen.

Even so, he can be no more than a hint, a mere example in the dis-
cussion. You could not breed a whole school of perfectly cinematic actors
merelv bv copying him. The intellectual problem of film acting has to
be faced, to be reasoned out and theorised. Direction has been univer-
sallv theorised, as is right ; of the two it is the more important. But acting
has too often held up or negatived direction to be left to work out its
principles by itself.

There is, and alwavs will be, an element of magic in the cinema; which
is, a romantic way of saving that it is reality more stylised, more highly
organised, more aesthetic than the reality of physical daily life. And until
the actor finds the way to make himself magical too, he has no home in
the other world that lies across the screen.

Elizabeth Coxhead.

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The first Yiddish film by Shpiss, " The Return of Nathan Becker."
" he retour de Nathan Becker" premier film Yiddish de Shpiss.
Der erste jiddische Film von Shpiss, " Die Riickkehr des Nathan Becker."

PUBLISHED SCENARIOS

This is not to argue the aesthetic toss : it is merely in a practical way
to discuss the publication of scenarios : of films made, or to be made.

Personally, and one can't do better than that, I should love a copy of
the script of Jeanne Key, and to be able to recreate at anv time my impres-
sions of that film, to take an example. It will not be long before scenarios
are regularly published : now the idea is a little strange, as was the idea
of publishing stage plays in Elizabethan times. No one then thought they
would stand up on their own without the traffic of the boards. It will be all
to the advantage of the original writer : the pioneer will be able to get a
hearing — a printed book carrying more weight than a tvped MS. —
especially if the critics, film and literary, give him a show. The book
sales would guarantee some return even if the script was never purchased
for production. Also it would be a convenience for the studios to be able
to purchase readv made scenarios, and a good press might encourage them

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to tackle unusual subjects. The fact of publication would be some indica-
tion of ability, at any rate, and would lift competent work out of the junk
basket, where now it must hob-nob with the dog-eared and weary bundles of
the literary agencies (" stage and film rights negotiated "). Success in
book form, also, should stiffen the price for the author. And we are talking
of original scenarios, conceived as cinema, and not of best selling novels
and plays.

Further, publication of scenarios would help to extend the cinema
consciousness of the public.

These thoughts are occasioned by the publication of an unshot
scenario, Bombay Riots, by C. Denis Pegge. This book has already been
reviewed in Close Up, and in the remarks that follow I am only concerned
with that book as an example. Bombay Riots is important because of its
intention : it does seriously set to work to find a suitable mechanism. The
King Who was a King had remarkably few repercussions, nor was one
surprised. The publication of Sunshine Susie, the plums of which were
published in shooting script form in the Daily Express, can only be looked
upon as a novelty stunt, though, perhaps, there may be seen some sort of
weather-cock in that.

If we grant that the intention is laudable, the question of form arises.
How, for instance, could the film Jeanne Ney be reproduced on paper? The
actual working script would no doubt be an interesting document. But
there is so' much ad hoc alteration on the floor of even the fullest script
that perhaps a more satisfactory result would be achieved if the published
scenario' was deduced from the film as finally taken and cut. For we do
not just want a blue-print, we are after a work of art, even if a compromise :
something that is shapely, with some literary form and style.

Mr. Pegge makes a great show of technique : we have our scenes sorted
out, numbered, coloured with sound, and the exact duration in seconds
calculated. This is all very well for scenes of long duration and slow tempo,
but the reader endures unnecessary hardship when the cutting is swift or
complex. It is also' academic : in practice a director prefers to say :

Scenes 203-233. Quick shots of native women dancing : arms, legs, bangles. Cut in
with shots of palm trees in wind, and boats rocking on lagoon.
(N.B. Try and persuade Harry to keep camera low).

rather than to work it all out elaborately on paper. Because the real
artist knows when to apply rule of thumb methods.

The method of Bombay Riots, then, is not really justified by a plea
of practicality : if the intention is to create in the mind of the reader the
effect of the film (which is not in practice visualised as a chain of discrete
" shots," but as a flow, a flood or a movement) this form is still less justi-
fied. Again, let me sav that I am only concerned with the method that
Mr. Pegge has chosen, one of several possible ones. Let us now have an
example: for several pages there are quick shots of this nature:

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Production still from this year's Ufa superfihn — " F. P. One." Production
Erich Pommer, direction, Karl Hartl.

Une scene de travail dans le film axtraordinaire de la Ufa de cette annee —
" /. F. i ne repond pas." Production Erich Pommer, regie Karl Hartl.

Werkfoto aus dem diesjdhrigen Spitzenfilm der Erich Pommer, Production
der Ufa, " F. P. I. antuortet nicht.

Another ground level view across the riot at its height. Short duration.
Clamour continuing.

570- 2J ins.

The arrested picture of 421 : the cleared conglomeration ; Jackson with raised
stick. Flash.

Clamour continuing.

571- 1 in.

Ground level view of riot. A flash.
Clamour continuing.

572- 1 in.

And so on. To appreciate the effect of this riot scene some minutes of
earnest ratiocination are required, several pages have to be turned to assimi-
late slowly a blow-of-the-eye which in practice would have fled bv in five
seconds. The eye, of course, is quicker than the ear and the tongue
(whose leisure we await even when reading to ourselves), and a film is not
a moving Tate Gallery, or a landscape album of the Scottish highlands.

In the following passage, taken from an experiment in this new form,
one may see an alternative method. The action is conceived in terms of
cinema, but written down with an eye to verbal effect :

The two girls pad on in their silent sand-shoes dowrn the zig-zag towards the bay,
first towards the lighthouse, and then away from the lighthouse and towards the
Marine Hotel, and then away from the Marine Hotel and towards the lighthouse,
and meanwhile Mr. Curtis goes round and round his heap of cement, mixing it all
up, and Tomlinson moves down the row of dibbles with the cabbage plants.

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This, perhaps, interprets three different sorts of movement better than
if they were analysed into twenty cross cut shots.

But there is a further major difficulty, one that may prove to stump
us entirely in the end. Imagine a shot of a wineglass held in a hand,
which revolves it slowly until it dissolves or " turns " into a pool of water
ringed by a dropped stone. The images only hold the screen for perhaps
three seconds, vet even from that simple shot the eve had received many
varied, complex and rich stimuli, which, if catalogued in words, would
take half an hour to read. The eve, for instance, has assimilated imme-
diately the changing flecks of light on the finger nails, the way in which
thev progress in an opposite direction tO' the high light on the rim of the
glass — and so on and so on. Words, in fact, are really not much good
in describing cinema. But thev are some good, the attempt is still valu-
able, and particularly if the words are used with poetic compression and
suggestion. For that we must cut away our stage directions of scene
numbers, and try and give duration, tempo, colour, etc., intrinsically .

The following passage from Few Are Chosen, by Oswell Blakeston,
describes a scene in a bar. This style of highly sensitive reporting is, in
one direction at least, essentiallv cinema.

Music works through Charlie's body, to tapping fingers. Let's sit on the dangerous
sofa. Do you know when the show ends? Don't think, gents, that I ask from
any ulterior motive ; I am an old player at the Abbey Theatre. Winding up an
oblong wrist-watch, eyes doing those things. Music works through Charlie's body,
orchestrating the sounds and dialogue. A loud march (Japanese acrobats) dissolves
into the drink in bubbles. Scowls, vendettas, stilettoes. Collegiate bar, my sweet,
in the Kurfiirstendam ; cocktail shakers with half the hair sleeked, the other half
puffed, one takes one's choice, evidently. Can you open this cigarette case? (Heavv
refulgence). Exactly what I wanted. Henri brings an extra suit-case for presents.
Sense of plush, music from the cymbals, feverish combat ; tide over Charlie.

This was not written, of course, with an eye to the camera : it is
literary. It suggests, however, a writer whose natural view point and atti-
tude to life is " cinema " : an acceptance that becomes a moralitv because
of its completeness. Nor is it bv chance that the cinema is a natural mode
of expression in this age.

Without being doctrinaire I suggest, to return to our point, that the
best way to tackle this problem of translating cinema into words is as
follows : first, conceive the subject in camera angles and shots : write, in
fact, a scenario. Then, translate the technical score into words chosen
so that their rhythm, proportion and colour intrinsically (that is the key-
note) recreate the movement, duration and general effect — smoothness, hard-
ness, recession and so forth — of the shifting scenes. According to the
subject the result would vary from something that approximates to a
scenario to a complete dissolution, an evocative word pattern, merelv.

Roger Burford.

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Annabella in Rene Clair's latest film, " 14th July." Photo: Tobis.
Annabella dans le dernier film de Rene Clair : " 14 Juillet." Photo: Tobis.
Annabella in Rene Clairs letztem Film " 14. jhdi." Photo : Tobis.

THREE PARIS FILMS

Chance willed that two films with the same theme : Paris were pre-
sented on the same daw

One was 14//; July, by Rene Clair, the other Paris Mirages, the first
comedy of Fedor Ozep, director of The Yellow Ticket, The Brothers Kara-
mazofj, etc.

Both show a special aspect of this eternal city, both abstain from
partizanship.

The cinema to-day suffers from a crise de courage. Talented directors
spin old stories which can mean nothing" to us unless for special reasons.
Clair and Ozep are not the only ones. All directors who know their job
have no courage to say what they think.

The case of Fedor Ozep is perhaps apart. For the first time in France
(after having made a French version of Karamazoff he was allowed bv
one of the big firms to make a film after his own scenario. (The idea of
the scenario is, incidentally, that of Victor Trivas, maker of No Man's Land,
so I hear). But, given permission, difficulties began. Fear on the part of
the producers of upsetting the French temper if this fantasy on Paris were

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" Mirages de Paris." Decor by Andreyev and d'Agnettand. Photo : Film

Pathe-Natan.

" Mirages de Paris." Decor d' Andreyev et Agnettand. Photo : Pathe-Natan.

Mirages de Paris. Dekeration von Andreyev and d'Agnettand. Photo : Film

Pathe-Natan.

shown, fear, justified, of the press and public reaction, that the charm of this
fantasy lay in the fact that it presented an unreal Paris, that it showed
the first contact of a foreign artist with this city of a hundred thousand
faces, insuffisants actors, music a shade too subtle in the revue scenes, etc.,
etc. — fear always of wounding a ridiculous self-esteem.

Thus Ozep has every excuse. His intentions were nipped in the bud.
The film, however, deserves to be seen, for it shows yet again what can be
done with talkies if one takes the trouble to think.

Paris Mirages is a brilliant work, a film which should be shown to all
students of cinema technics. Ozep reveals extraordinary faculty for
montage — that Russian touch !

14th July is much more complex. For the first time I am convinced
that Clair too, belongs to that class of directors who are " obsessed." By
obsessed, I mean those who have something to say, that it must be said
in film, and that they continually repeat it. In various ways, Stroheim,
Vidor, Pabst, Fejos (at moments), Sternberg (sometimes) are in this
category.

They interest us. They are men, not merely manufacturers of

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" Mirages de Paris." Decor by Andreyev and d'Agnettand. Photo : Film

Pathe-Natan.

" Mirages de Paris." Decor d' Andreyev et Agnettand . Photo : Pathe-Natan.

Mirages de Paris. Dekeration von Andreyev rind d'Agnettand. Photo : Film

Pathe-Natan.

ephemeral fHm-stuff . Behind what we see, we sense the more or less timid
desire of heart and spirit to- be free of what enchains.

Clair, coming" from a bourgeois French family, has for a long time
striven to shake off this milieu. Really a feeble man, ill perhaps, de-
pleted, and an intellectual. And well he knows it. He is French, in the
special and full connotation of the word, with all its faults and exceptional
qualities. And in all his films he has sought to escape from the world he
knows, showing us old and poor corners of Montmartre, and simple, poor
people whom he knows only in so far as he desires to' be one of them.

And he is aware that he will never be able to emerge from his bour-
geois, intellectual circle. Then he flies off into the unreal-realism of his
films, where he may live vicariously the life which is forbidden him.

After a long siege, he is able, more or less, to be quite free on the
production side. It is for this reason that he makes only one film each
year, one which is specially and completelv his own work. It is he who
writes his own scenarios, he who cuts the film, he who directs, he who
allows no- actor to play in any way other than that minimum which shall
safeguard the unity of his work, he who does the mounting".

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" Mirages de Paris." Decor by Andreyev and d'Agnettand. Photo: Film

Pathe-Natan.

" Mirages de Paris." Decor d' Andreyev et Agnettand. Photo : Pathe-Natan.

Mirages de Paris. Dekeration von Andreyev und d'Agnettand. Photo : Film

Pathe-Natan.

In 14//; July (a good commercial title, with little bearing on the con-
tent) he reveals that he has arrived at complete mastery of this graceless
material called film.

Love of Jean (Georges Rigaud) and Anna (Annabella, who- has never
been so tender and so charming) ; friendship of his friend (Raymond Cordy,
who once more is a truculent chauffeur), and the intervention of a sort of
dens ex machina, Paul Olivier (who plays one of those distinguished tip-
plers, and who, remaining quite unreal, achieves a charm of unspeakable
reality). Finally the vamp (Pola Illery) and her two accomplices, two
luckless ruffians (Raymond Aimos and Thorny Bourdelle).

We know from the start that Jean and Anna will have to demonstrate
proofs of their love, that the vamp, Pola, will do her best to make a mess
of them, and that all will end well. But that is not so important. What
is important is the almost supernatural life with which Clair invests these
puppets.

Yes, we say, Clair is a great poet ! Critics will possibly say he is
influenced by Chaplin, by the Marx Brothers — it is possible. Personally
my opinion is he is influenced by the poet, Rene Clair.

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Julian Duvivier'sfilm, " Alio, Berlin ? Ici Paris ! "
Du dernier film de Duvivier : " Alio, Berlin? Ici Paris ! "
Julia?! Duviviers Film " Alio Berlin ? Ici Paris ! "

The delicious scene in which, after an amorous disillusionment, Anna
goes home and knocks over a small boy who starts to* cry, must be men-
tioned. Anna gets to work to comfort the child. " Well, it's over. Don't
go on crying, it's over!" And, with tears streaming slowly from her
eyes, we realise that these words, spoken to the boy, are really spoken to
herself, who stands in greater need of consolation. There are scenes of
delicious humour — plaved by Olivier, always superb when directed by
Clair, and Raymond Cordy, the chauffeur, who, with Clair, is not vulgar
any more, only truculent. All the minor parts, too, have an adroit and
personal appeal.

In short, it is a true Rene Clair success ! Even Perinal, who
sometimes draws too much attention to herself, is, this time, discreet,
subservient to the whole, while the Montmartre decors (by Meerson) are
perfectly in key.

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The abused word " personality " can here be justly employed. Clair
is a personality in the cinema world, where lack of personality is at a
premium. That is why I expressed in the beginning mv disappointment
that he did not bite into a more violent theme. Maybe he is waiting for
a more propitious moment.

At all events, I did not believe that he would have presented a film
of such astonishing maturity. The unjust criticisms which could be
hurled against it would have to- remain insensible to the underlying suffer-
ing, the expression of which is the artist's privilege.

The third film, called Hallo Berlin, Paris Speaking, by Julien
Duvivier, was made in Germany in one version only, with dialogue half in
German, half in French, and records the adventures of two- telephone opera-
tors who1 fall in love while making Paris-Berlin connections. But another
friend takes) the place of the nice young man, and another girl, un peu
legere, meets the nice young man when he arrives late, in Paris. In the
end, everything adjusts.

Duvivier, however, uses this intrigue to' show once more how a film
can be made which can be perfectly understood both by French and Ger-
man people. And he depicts a Paris such as a foreign tourist would see
it, that is to say, almost not at all, in one of the too-speedy cars of Thomas
Cook ! And how a German sees it, who does not speak French, and goes
for hour-long walks in places which could exist in any town on earth.

Duvivier is a very good film craftsman, and reveals in this film quali-
ties far superior to those evinced by previous works. This time, apart from
one or two minor errors of taste, he establishes a comprehension of the
sound-film, the value of silence, etc., and in other respects the subject per-
mits a simultaneity in current events of the world — this is well managed.
Value is given to the work which bv far surpasses the story of petty in-
trigue and plot and counterplot.

With the public this film, too', had little acclaim. Meanwhile I am
persuaded that Duvivier will make what is called an honourable career !
Important enough in its way ! For the mediocre producer holds always
in horror a subject of intelligent worth, and Duvivier, who until now has
always directed somewhat vulgar melodramas, will maybe continue tO' make
real films.

Paris, January, 1933.

Jean Lenauer.

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' Ikino-Kami Ogasawara," directed by Sadao Yamanaka.
" Ikmo-Kami-Ogasmvara ," de Sadao Yamanaka.
Ikino-Kami Ogasazvara." Regie . Sadao Yamanaka.

JAPANESE FILM PROBLEMS, 1932

A
B

Sadao Yamanaka as a new figure.
Some notes on Japanese talking films.
Chushin-gura or The Forty-Seven Faithful.

Sadao Yamanaka, a young director, was the greatest and most brilliant
discovery of Japanese cinema in 1932. He made six feature films during the
year — which perhaps you may think is a praiseworthy production output —
not one of them having failed to draw discussion and acclaim from the
critics.

As a matter of fact, no other Japanese director — with the possible ex-
ception of Daisuke Ite — has been studied and analysed with more enthusi-
asm. It is said that he is twenty four )-ears of age, one or two years younger
than Ilya Trauberg, the renowned Soviet director.

Sadao Yamanaka, formerly a scenario-writer, made his directorial debut
in February, 1932, with Genta Isono (a vagabond gambler) wherein he
revealed promise of becoming a director of talent. After that he made, in
quick succession, five pictures — Rain of Coins, lkono-Kami Ogasawara,
A Whistling Samurai, A Fraudulent Buddhist, and Kurama Tengu. You
must know that S. Yamanaka was obliged to work with such speed because
he was the only chief directorial figure in a minor film company, named
Kanjuro Production Company.

All his pictures are characterised by eminently superior film technique,
by which is meant that our interest in his films is more related to his film
forms than to his material content. Detailed comment on his technological
merits (i.e., his rhythmic construction with straight cuts, emotional expres-
sion of picturesque frames cut in with titles — sometimes spoken titles, some-
times even verse — adoption of unusual camera angles to give pictures stere-
scopic effect, his peculiar manner of connecting one scene with the following,
etc., all that contributes tO' distinguish him as a great technician) would
fill a book !

One of his directorial resources which I like best is that he never per-
mits his actors to indulge in striking facial expression (a prevailing narra-
tive means in most Japanese films, especiallv in Jidai-Gcki films, which
deal with old Japanese material, not modern stories; and a bad influence
and tradition of Japanese Kabuki Theatre.)

In spite of this superior technicality, his films are not highly esteemed,
because they are, so to speak, unreal, they are wanting in what relates to
actuality. It is true that in the depiction of love scenes he shows great
adroitness, and is equally skillful in constructing a scenario, but there it
ends. His success in Rain of Coins (which is a love story, a pathetic
romance of a restaurant girl and a fireman — considered to be his best) and

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''Spring and a Girl" a talking-film directed by Tomataka Tazaka — zcell received if not enthusiastically.
" Une fille au printemps," film parlant realise par Tomotaka Tasaka, accueilli favorablement sinon

avec enthousiasme.

" Friihling and ein Ma'dchen," ein Sprechfilm unter der Regie von Tomotaka Tasaka — zturde
freundlich, wenn audi nicht allzu begeistert anfgenommen.

his failure in Ikino-Kami Ogasaivara (a great political leader of the Toku-
g'awa Government who struggles with the intricate political problems to
which Old Japan has been exposed) vindicate that, I think.

At present most Japanese critics score over the director as, whilst he
may possibly continue to be a great story-teller, he can hardly produce
film-art worthy of the name.

The Japanese talking picture is making very slow progress. This
year we had, (though I am not absolutelv certain of the number) more than
fifteen talkies. Assuming that Japan has produced six hundred pictures
this year (last year according to the Kinema-Jumpo we had 598 features)
then the number of talkies published in 1932 amounts to only 2.5 per cent,
of the total figure of pictures made, and, what is more depressing, we can-
not find a single talkie comparable with the European or American master-
pieces from viewpoints purely technological and artistic.

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The drawbacks are attributable to many causes, but firstly and
dominantly, to the financial condition of Japanese cinema which is for-
ever destined, on account of the national peculiarity, not to fit foreign
markets, and is, therefore, prevented from spending as much money on
film production as in occidental countries. Making a talkie needs more
money than making a silent film and projecting a talkie needs new equip-
ment. Moreover, business depression is felt very acutely in the film trade.
These aspects prevent a film producing company from making a talkie and
a film exhibitor from buying a sound film apparatus. The second cause
is that few directors understand a talking picture as the more profound form
of film art, if they know a little of counterpoint, parallelism and such like;
although thev may know all about sound technics, thev don't understand a
talking picture as a new, greater totalitv. A director ventured to make a
talking Japanese adaptation of Sunrise, the famous silent film by the late
F. W. Murnau, only to testify to the truth that sound is unnecessary and
surplus for the expression of the material content of Sunrise. Another
director made a musical film which expressed nothing more than its theme
songs alone expressed, a talking film which is qualified to amuse blind
spectators. Very soon after Rene Clair's Sous les Toils de Paris was shown,
we were much surprised to see in the opening scene of almost every Japanese
talkie a camera which tracked forward from a higher to a lower level and in
its ending scene tracked converselv, both scenes accompanied by the theme
song.

" Rain of Coins," directed by Sadao Yamanaka.
" Phtie de sous," realise par Sadao Yamanaka.
" Munzenregen." Regie : Sadao Yamanaka.

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" Chushin-gura" or " The Forty- Seven Faithful," a talking film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa.
The Kabuki theatre scene. (See article.)

Chushin-gura " on " Les quarante-sept fideles" film parlant de Teinosuke Kinugasa. Scene
du Theatre Kabuki. (voir article y relatif).
" Chushin-gura " oder " Die 47 Getreuen" ein Sprechfilm unter der Regie von Teinosuke Kinugasa.
Die Theaterszene von Kabuki. (Siehe Artikel.)

In 19-32 we Japanese film critics attacked our talkies without mercy and
studied why they were in so miserable a state. After all we realised that
our talkie cineastes wished only to display the brilliancy of sound technics
such as those already suggested by foreign talking masterpieces and that
it is not a mere sound technic but the nature of a talkie as a totality that is
of importance. So we abandoned any discussion on sound aesthetics in
which we haye indulged since the appearance of ]azz Singer in America in
1927. How to improye our talkies at least from the artistic side ? J. Futaba,
a friend of mine and one of our most promising critics, sent an S.O.S.
message to the theatre art circle and suggested a Japanese talkie to be
amalgamated with a Japanese theatre, belieying that the present deplorable
state is due to the fact that a Japanese talkie, as soon as it appeared in 1932,
shook hands with Air. Rene Clair, instead of embracing the theatrical form
which earlier American talkies were obliged to do. I agree with him ; there
is no denying that a true sound him art will eyolye from the phase of con-
flict between silent film and theatre.

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Granting that we are willing- to enter into friendly relationship with the
Japanese theatre, what in the world has this newly acquired friend got to
help our cinema? It is a great misfortune that at present we have no
valuable modern theatre-art groups and so no great theatre directors, such
as Max Reinhardt, or Meyerhold or Reuben Mamoulian and furthermore
that our old theatre Kabuki is an art rather of a few actors than of a director.

Here I will suggest a chance in the near future to describe new develop-
ments of our talking pictures. Up to this date we have only two talkies
that deserve consideration ; one is Madam and Wife, the first Japanese talkie
(1931) directed by Heinosuke Gosho*, the other Chushingura, the latest talkie
directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa.

The final sensation of Japanese cinema 1932 was Chushingura, or The
Forty Seven Faithful, (a Shochiku Kinema Company production directed
bv Teinosuke Kinugasa whom you will remember as the director of Under
the Shadow of Yoshiwara and Before Daybreak) because it has a colossal
length of 20 reels and, what is more important, because it is a talking picture.

Chushingura is one of the most well known and favourite national sagas
which occurred in the feudal days of Japan. Asano, a provincial lord,

" Chiishin-gura," or " The Forty-Seven Faithful," a talking film directed by

Teinosuke Kinugasa.

"Chiishin-gura," ou"Les quar ante-sept fideles" film parlant de Teinosuke Kinugasa.

" Chiishin-gura," oder "Die 47 Getreuen," ein Sprechfilm unter der Regie von

Teinosuke Kinugasa.

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bearing a grudge against Kira, gave the latter at the General's Palace a
cut which proved to be not very serious. Asano, however, was ordered to
commit Hara-kiri by the General's law. After two years of difficulties, the
forty seven faithful of Asano's men revenged themselves upon Kira one snow
falling night. Such is the story in a nutshell. Teinosuke Kinigasa films
the sage ojily as it is traditionally known, never penetrating into the nucleus
of the story from the new standpoint. (Just like Abel Gance in his
Napoleon). If we put out of the question our dissatisfaction in that respect,
Kinugasa is said to have done a comparatively good job. His success in
Chushingura is due to> the scenario construction, so well built that there is
not a dull moment, during three and a half hours' run. I heard that
Kinugasa, when he was making it, was much exercised by many questions,
such as synchronisation, anti-synchronisation, relations of sound with image,
changing cuts by the antecendence of sound, utilization of silence, applica-
tion of Kabuki-methods, etc. Though in this picture we can see two or three
scenes in which dialogues are taken contrapuntally, they seem to me to be
mere technics unreasonably applied, not rising necessarilv from previous
scenes. The most important and significant experiment is in a sequence at
the beginning of the second part of this picture, in which events are
developed in the milieu of a Japanese theatre of the corresponding time,
As Asano's Hara-kiri event was a sensation at the time, it was presented as
a play (though somewhat modified) at a Kabuki theatre. One day some of
Asano's men happened to see the play. On the stage scene Enya who is
identified with Asano is insulted, without any real reason by Kono in the
part of Kira. All the spectators feel merciful toward Enya. Needless to
say, Asano's men among the spectators are irritated with a sense of reality.
At last one of them rushes to the theatre stage to kill the actor in the role of
Kono, with the result that the play is completely spoiled by the unexpected
intruder. In filming this sequence Kinugasa represented the so-called
Kabuki methods in a well built cinema construction. As far as this sequence
is concerned I cannot too much praise him.

Y. Ogino.
(End December, 1932. Japan.)

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Chushin-gura," a talking film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa. The men in white are going to commit
" hara-kiri." White clothes are 7corn for the act of " hara-kiri."

" Chushin-gura," film parlant realise par Teinosuke Kinugasa. Les hommes en blanc sont prets a se
donner le " hara-kiri." Les vetement bla?ics sont d'usage pour ce mode de suicide.

Chushin-gura," ein Sprechfilm unter der Regie von Teinosuke Kinugasa. Die weissgekleideten
Manner sind im Begriffe " Harakiri " zu veriiben. Beim Harakiri uird stets weisse Kleidung getragen .

REALITY ISN'T TRUE

By Oswell Blakeston and Roger Burford.

Note. — This is the second of a series of articles designed to show the
independent worker in cinema paths for advancing. The individual worker
is only of importance if he tackles problems which are not touched by the
professional slick movie. The first article, which appeared in Close Up for
December, 1932, treated of fantastic happenings in small studio sets : this
article suggests a treatment of simple scenes taken out-of-doors.

Private cinema workers must often have been guilty of filming a record
of their holidays. They are the first to realise that there is little value
in such strings of realistic event-photos. Yet, this article is to present
how even that difficult theme of holiday-story could be treated for worth-
while effect. This is because the photography of reality is not considered
so much as the photography of THOUGHTS about reality.

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Every sensitive person knows that there are two lives : the life of
sensation" and the life of FEELING ABOUT SENSATION. Obviously
it is of little value to march a camera around streets and hills and photo-
graph this view and this view, but to photograph feeling" about this sight
and this sight — that is a different matter, that requires controlled thought,
pre-vision. Cinematically the magic life is created by overtones, overtonal
montage ". . . Photo of a star-fish. (" Go and catch a falling star.")
Camera moving up to' hold face of woman gazing out to' sea, grey hair
floating in the wind. (" Tell me where all past vears are.") Etcetera.

The following scenario' is constructed to convey an easv comprehen-
sion of overtonal montage. How drama is kept imminent through a feel-
ing for the thing about to happen : hints, visual pounces. Nothing hap-
pens in one world, everything in the magic world : fertility or rain-making
motif of the girl's bathe? Compositions, colours, textures. Without
actors, lights or sets. And the material is pretty elastic as the independent
worker never knows quite Avhat he is going to' get ; wet and dry, heat and
coolness. A dozen similar themes would fit various localities, from the
back garden to the Blue Danube. Musical background ....

Mr. Curtis pours, choking, a bucketful of Red Triangle cement out
of the brown paper sack into the zinc bucket. A pollen of cement settles
on the parched toe-caps of the shoes he keeps for his crazy-paving-making.

Tomlinson, the gardener in the next garden on the cliff-top, scratches
at the dry clay on the knee of his cord trousers. Four snail shells, empty,
on the path : very brittle, and casting no shadow. Tomlinson's horn nail
ruffles up the cord pile and from the velvet stubble springs out a dry
stream : motes circulating in the clustv sun which strikes through a crack
in the wooden shed where he is sitting, among the raffia and the flower
pots, the bunches of last-year's flowers with their heads tied up in brown
paper bags. Dog-biscuit bag of white calico, with the heels of ai bunch of
tindery marigolds tied with printed yellow parcel tape.

Ada is waiting for Blanche in the tiled hall of Calais View. The
concrete blocks of the marine parade (constructed in 1909) measure three
feet by two by two; they are fixed with iron clamps. Blanche lurks in
the shaded bedroom : a bar of shadow, a blind slat,- traces across her face
the contour of drooping" lip and lowered eyelid : the two' middle fingers
of her right hand touch her throbbing temples : then she unfastens the
strap of her wrist watch, lavs the watch between the water carafe and the
soap dish. A striped bathing box, with flaking paint, also a small crab
shell on the sands, empty. Ada is wearing, and she knows it, sand shoes,
but no stockings, a print frock, speckled, underneath that knickers and
an artificial silk vest. Shifting the hang of the print dress so that it does
not drag against her body she opens the door of Calais View. Sun lunges
in at her, smites her, bends her back.

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Mr. A. V. Pilichowski explains his sketch of a cinema of the future : " What seems
required for a cinema to be truly cinematic is a more immediate contact between the screen
and the audience. My suggestion is for a panoramic screen ; the idea being that the
screen should encircle the audience and thus make it part of a complete system. Mobile
multiple projectors would throw pictures on the screen, the action being started at one
end and terminated at the other. Visibility would not be required to be perfect from
every seat at the same time, a certain element of interest being aroused by hiding,
revealing, and hiding again the picture as it sweeps around the screen. The peculiar
charm of the Elizabethean theatre or the intimate and spontaneous reactions experienced
at the circus would be recaptured."

A gatepost of Calais View, made of pebbled biscuit-coloured cement
studded with white chicken-grit ; on top, seventy-eight oyster shells.
Tomlinson walks down towards the kitchen garden with a trug of cabbage
plants. Mr. Curtis tips out the Red Triangle cement on to the mixing-
board near the crazy paving that he is making. Ada and Blanche walk
one behind the other along the cobbled path to the shell-studded gatepost,
then side by side down the hill. The drugged cat on the flint wall does
not move.

Tomlinson dibbles holes in the inhospitable soil, scrabbling away the
stones with his horn nails, and Mr. Curtis runs his fingers through the
sand : nice and sharp. And he begins to mix, one part cement, three
parts sand, shovelling them together into a volcano, down the sides of

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which continually from the other side pour the cement and sand, mingling
in grey and ochre streaks, but, as they mix, then grey all over.

Blanche is wearing a white pique frock with suntone stockings, and a
big white hat : a yacht sail or a seagull cutting into the black sky ... A
spread fan of white Japanese rice paper on the marble mantelpiece of Calais
View, tied with pastel blue silk cord. . . The two girls pad on in their
silent sand shoes down the zig-zag towards the bay, first towards the light-
house, then away from the lighthouse and towards the Marine Hotel, then
away from the Marine Hotel and towards the lighthouse.* Mr. Curtis
goes round and round his heap of cement, mixing it all up. Tomlinson
moves down the row of dibbles with the cabbage plants. Wall's Ice Cream
boy, in striped cotton jacket, blue serge trousers, pushing carrier tricycle
up hill. Two women in shantung dresses turn back the leaves of the re-
volving post-card stand on the kiosk. Blanche and Ada step down on to
the parade : Blanche's fingers with brittle nails feel for the iron rail of the
steps going down to the beach. Blanche goes down. Ada goes down.

Four sand-shoed feet plod over the shingle where the seaweed lies
wilting, or quite dry and ready to pop : the dry stones crashing together
might drown Ada's small words. She runs her fingers round the yoke of
her print dress. A cork dislodged by a sandshoe rolls down from the
shingle ridge. It rolls and comes to rest against a sponge, a yellow brittle
ball, dessicated. The cork lodges against it, full stop. Semi-colon, the
wave curls up, flashes its teeth at the sun, sinks snarling into1 the sand,
hissing, and draws back and sees what it has done, a narrow bite-line of
tiny shells and fragments of pink and green weed on the wet flat sand.
Then it bites again, sneezing and flashing.

Ada's fingers tremble as she reaches to undo the button of her print
frock. Blanche's sand shoes, with the laces still knotted, lie limp, smelling
slightly of warm rubber, against the boulder of chalk which traps in the
undressing place all the white sun. Two bathing dresses lie on the chalk,
spread out. The limp cabbage plants lie some this way some that, the
whites of their eyes showing, or like the fish on the hot seats of the pier.
Mr. Curtis begins to peel off his jumper : the woollen arm of heather
mixture dangles down, jerking, as he struggles inside the baking wool.
Blanche's fingers lift the edge of her skirt, feel for the suspender button :
she peels off the suntone stocking. Her toes on the warm chalk. Snail
shell on path, emptv : translucent with faint blue markings. Tomlinson
goes slowly up the path to the outside tap. Mr. Curtis fixes the water
hose junction, as Ada has her bathing dress up to< her waist, as Blanche
has her bathing dress up to< her waist, as Ada's left shoulder is in, as
Blanche's left shoulder is in.

Four feet patter the flat sand, first dry and yellow, and then wetter
and darker and flatter. The chalk and the cork and the zig-zag and the
parade and the Marine Hotel and the cat on the flint wall and the gardens
* See " Published Scenarios," Page 50.

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on the cliff and the tricycle and the shell studded gatepost are behind them,
beating out the sun towards them, and in front of them the wave lifts its
head and hisses and poises and then crashes down on their toes. OH !
They run through the wave, splashing it up and churning it up. Water
gushes out of the tap into the gardener's can and down the hose towards
the smouldering volcano, tumbling down and sweeping away the expand-
ing crater, streaming out and breaking down the powdery barriers, formed
and reformed by the quick shovel, till the mass puddles down and slops
over the board, while a small rain cloud begins to creep up in the west.
Large black slug scummed over saliva in the wet cave behind a marrow
lead.

Blanche stoops down ; the wave heaves up over her shoulder, green
and glassy. She falls flat and the wave covers her, and she jumps up
gasping. Ada gasps " OH ! oh !" as she wades in : pearls of sweat run
down her dark brown shoulders, and a splash of sea tingles in her dark
hair. Blood, running away from the clasp of the water, makes Ada feel
up over her back and round her breasts and shoulder blades and neck and
cheek, and the Avater spills out of the can round the cabbage plants. Not
looking back, all you can see is two heads bobbing on the sea, which
stretches for twenty miles, and in the other direction never ends till it has
gone round Finisterre and Cape Horn, and has smashed against the reefs
of Japan.

The wrist watch between the water caraffe and the soap dish has
measured half an hour. Blanche's hands pick up the wet, warm, salty
bathing dress and twist it slowly. A few drops of salty water fall on the
chalk, and die out quickly. Tomlinson straightens and looks up at the rain
cloud coming from the west. Mr. Curtis has laid another of his crazy-
paving stones, and he draws a sack over it to keep it moist till it hardens
out and grows hard and pale and grey among the mosses.

CINEMA PSYCHOLOGY

It was some thirty years ago that George Melies captivated the world
with his feats of screen magic. By means of stop-camera, dissolves, double
exposure and other originalities he outmatched the most astonishing per-
formances of Aladdin's genie or the enchantments of Circe. Designed at
the time simply as an end in themselves for the amusement of the wonder-
loving public, these clever camera illusions opened the door tO' the drama-
turgic possibilities of the then recently invented motion picture. Herein
was the incipience of a new art of imaginational expression. Whatever

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might be the developments of the cinema, its paramount destiny lay in the
realm of fantasy and idealism.

Such, at any rate, was the vision of the seers of that day. That the
promise of their vision has not been realized is no discredit to them. Every
justification was theirs. The promise was patently implicit in the early
cinema, and, moreover, its warranty remains as an inherence in the cinema
of to-day, albeit now heavily overlaid with prosaic dramatism. Certainly
no craft or art yet invented has ever approached the motion picture in its
unique ability to visualize the illusorv or transcendental. Itself a creature
of illusion — the mental deceit of motion — it is potentially the most resource-
ful and effective creator of illusion ever placed at the service of romanticism.

How, then, does it happen that with the growth of the cinema its excep-
tional usefulness in the field of imagery has been progressively ignored ?
Why has not the world's abundant and ever appealing literature in this
extensive domain been translated into film — its fairy tales, its myths, its
legends, its fables, its folklore, its poetic idealities, together with its never
ending output of whimsy and fantasy?

The answer lies not in the unimaginativeness of the producers, but in
the cinema itself. Cronus-like, it has devoured its own offspring. The
possibilities born of its first efforts have been swallowed up in its evolving
sophistication. As a creator of illusion it has produced so artful a decep-
tion of reality that it to-day presents the paradox of having destroyed the
very virtue by which this accomplishment has been achieved. At all
events, the public no' longer accepts it in its illusional capacity. It has
become transformed from an actuator into a mirror of the animated sub-
stantialities of life; and the more closely it approximates a true reflection,
in story, in personalities and in naturalness of effects, the stronger becomes
its popular attraction, with a corresponding further submergence of
its primal character.

In the beginning and for a number of years it was nothing other than
frankly true to its origin. Its initial attempts at coherent picture stories
were characteristicallv illusive, fantastic, magical. With the improvement
of dramatic technique and the introduction of professional actors, its
original presentments gave way to- others of less fanciful conception.
Verisimilitude took the place of phantasv. Yet even here for a time illusion
lingered as a passable incident, in the form of picturized thoughts, memor-
ies and restrospective scenes, with now and then a touch of the spectral,
only to be eventually discarded in obedience to the growing exactions of
realism.

Nevertheless, unaware of the psychological factor that has motivated
the evolution of the cinema, producers have time and again during recent
years undertaken the filming of Arabiani Nights stories and other like
imaginative creations of perennial popularity. To the producer, as well
as the man on the street, the motion picture has appeared to be an ideal

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medium for the presentation of stories of this type. And particularly has
this seemed true in the light of the great advancement in cinematic crafts-
manship and the means thus made possible for the facile producing of
magical and spectacular effects.

All in all, therefore, according to this superficial view, films of The
Thief of Bagdad, Gulliver's Travels, Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz, Alice
in Wonderland and others of similar character ought to have proved ex-
ceptionally attractive, as well as profitable. However, the exact oppo-
site has resulted in every instance. All such pictures, and especiailly
those exploiting well known players, have been signally unsuccessful. The
public doesn't like them; won't have them.

Clearly, the modern motion picture has become distinctively and irre-
vocably associated with realism. Its any incursion into the realm of the
ethereal is a psychological contretemps. In the beginning its exhibitions
of illusion were acceptable because of the obvious make-believe of the mise
en scene and the impersonality of the actors and because of the pictures'
general technical crudeness. Every element contributed to the scene of
unreality. But with the passing of the primitive mechanics of the cinema
and the advent of substantial and recognizable realities, the essential
psychological harmony was destroyed. Verity and phantom would not
mix.

That the refusal of the public to accept present-day marvel pictures
is in no wise attributable to any diminution of humanity's love of the
fanciful and the fabulous, is emphatically attested by the unrivaled popu-
larity of Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies. Whether knowingly or
not, their creator, Walt Disney, has endowed these films in their every
component with the basic essence of illusion — unreality of personification,
of milieu, of action, and, in particular, the means of representation. There
is here, in these animated drawings, no suggestion of photography — and
it is photography, so inescapably evident in the cinema proper, that lies
at the bottom of our conceptual association of motion pictures with vera-
cious life and actuality.

In Silly Symphonies (for which, by the way, a more reputable and
worthy name is now being sought) there shines the promise of a renais-
sance of imaginative films. Embellished with color and sound and de-
voted lately to the picturing of fable and fairy tale, they are possibly lead-
ing the way to a delectable fulfilment of the vision of the early cinema
prophets. At any rate, the only hope of such a consummation lies in
films of this character. The cinema of Hollywood stars will never be
aught but of the earth earthy.

Clifford Howard.

BEGINNING OF THE YEAR IN GERMANY

Berlin, January, 1933.

The Berlin daily paper Der Deutsche is not verv likely to have a large
circulation. It is certainly neither too popular nor very important in any
respect. It has a limited, but steady number of readers, and maintains the
temperate attitude of an official gazette. In this quality of an official organ
it serves the christian trade-union. Its editor is perhaps the busiest news-
paper scientist of Germany ■ Professor Dr. Emil Dovifat, the director of
the Berlin University Institute of Journalism.

For some years (since 1924) this paper — having previously held little
influence — has been of interest to the film observer. Every New Year's
issue contains the question : " Which film impressed you most last year?"
This question is put to a comparatively great number of people in Germany
and abroad — to people working on the film, to authors, artists, journalists,
instructors, to organisations and firms of every kind and tendency. This
time nearly 300 answers have been sent in, among which is Mussolini's as
well as the answer of Oskar Tietz, the German competitor in the 6 days'
race. The total circulation of all the papers whose film critics have stated
their opinion is more than millions.

Most frequently the film Der traumende Mund (The Dreaming Mouth)
was mentioned — the work of Paul Czinner, with Elizabeth Bergner playing
the leading role. Second came Les Croix des Boix by the French director,
Raymond Bernard.

One need not overestimate this voting, for its importance is lessened
by the fact that the various participants in all parts of the world cannot
have seen the same films within the same space of time. But vet it remains
remarkable and convincing, that every year films which doubtlessly mean
an achievement, are victorious : Two years ago it was Sous les toits de
Paris, last year it was Madchen in Uniform, and now it is Der traumende
Mund. It is evident that this is not merely by chance. Once only, but
by one of the cleverest German critics the film Unmogliche Liebe (Im-
possible Love), and the name of Asta Nielsen were mentioned.

I don't know really whether this means anything to England and the
Anglo-Saxon countries, or not. Even in Germany her name has been
almost forgotten, although about 25 years ago only, it was Asta Nielsen
from Denmark who — by her ardent endeavours after serious film dramatism
— began the struggle for artistic films, a struggle which is still going on.
What she did was done for Germany, for Europe, for the world. And the
laurel wreath she was given by the " Dachorganisation der Filmschaffenden
Deutschlands EV," rightly bore the dedication : "To the first genius of

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film art." For Chaplin came much later, and Garbo is still young: And
the renown of directors never finds so distinct an expression.

But seven or eight years ago things began to grow rather quiet where
Asta Nielsen was concerned, and after the sound film had come into exis-
tence, perfectly quiet. For she had reached the age of 50, and it seemed
difficult for a woman of that age to find an important role in which she would
please the public. Besides that her German undoubtedly had a Danish
accent. Therefore it took years for her to get her role at last.

Here she plays a Baltic emigrant who has always worked hard to bring
up her two daughters, thereby neglecting her own life and ambitions. And
now after years of self-sacrifice, she begins to think of her right to live and
to love — and is wrecked — by conventions, by her surroundings, and by her
daughters. A woman with marriageable daughters has to resign.

The film is weak for it was made from a psychological novel probably
with many details, and now it dabbles along — meditating and epic — with
no dramatic tension, like an unfailing stream. And finally it denies itself
the effect principally intended : for the film portrait of a woman of 50 —
rough, frontal and superficial — contradicts in itself her right of love, even
if this woman is rejuvenated by the art of Asta Nielsen.

Characteristic to this art are : sureness, composedness, economy.
There is no other actress — with the exception of Garbo — who would dare
to give herself so much time before the camera, and who would rely on
so little mimic art — and yet reveal so much of her soul. Asta Nielsen,
sleek-headed, with bobbed hair, a pale, flat face, straight line of the mouth,
her too dark eves — this physiognomy recalling 1918, with its money in-
flation and vices — this unfashionable figure — is a classical representative of
the film, of the close up, of motion always fitting to the available space.

Elizabeth Bergner in Der trdumende Mund, is exactly her counterpart.
She, a virtuoso of the stage, who has been educated to awareness of the
distance between stage and stalls, is constantly keyed to this distance—
which must be bridged by steady intensity, by accumulation of detail and
nuance. Her ever-expressive and nervous acting, with its " emphasiz-
ing " technique and timing, never yields itself to the means of the camera .
does not calculate its enlargements and exaggerations — and will therefoie
seem unnatural, affected and hysterical to those who think the virtuoso
unentitled to outweigh composition with technique.

Once more we must speak of this der Deutsche concensus. And first of
all must be mentioned that some observant reviewers of German film
work were courageous enough to vote for a short one-reel film, for Die
steinemen W under von Naumburg (The Stone Marvels of Naumburg) by
Kurt Oertel the camera man.

The cathedral of Naumburg is one of the most beautiful romanish
buildings on earth, and this one-reel film is one of the most beautiful ex-
periments in the filming of buildings. Here only the camera moves, the
scene itself is motionless. The stone sculptures, pillars, columns and

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arches of the cathedral stand immovable and — seen in different lighting and
from different angles — they reveal to the observer such dramatic motion as
otherwise is revealed only to the learned and very attentive observer.

Apropos architecture : Two Germans who work on films have
announced that they want to transpose phoneticallv with the photo cell the
light reactions of plastics, and to compose them with their parallel visual
impressions to> obtain sound film accords.

This extremity must have been suggested by the experiments of Oscar
Fischinger whose compositions of dancing lines are the onlv kind of abstract
film which can be found in the regular programme of the German cinemas,
and which are well received by the public. Fischinger, who originally bv
synchronisation of his studies made real record pieces, has been trying
recently — in order to obtain a more complete unity of picture and sound —
to record decorative music in the Lichtongerat (light-sound) apparatus.

Simpler, more thorough and practical seem to be the similar endeavours
of Rudolf Pfenniger, who after a long and difficult analysis, was successful
in the calculation of sound writings, and also in drawing them with the
hand. His " Sounds from Nowhere " sound rather strange and hollow
for the present, like stopped up wooden instruments, but were composed
for several voices, and seem to be quite a suitable acoustical background
for marionette and trick films.

Thinking of these somewhat impetuous experiments, and that these
last months have confirmed the talent of two or three very young directors
— finally, that the German musical film comedy has become more ingenious,
even genuine and really amusing — then one would be almost inclined to
forget that one German film company after the other is breaking down,
and that the total sum of passive debts for the last years seems to be more
than 20,000,000 Rm. One would be almost inclined to forget that the
position of Ufa within the range of German film work means an incontest-
able, financial, organic, technical, artistic and philosophic monopolisation
of the German film. And to-day this danger is greater and more urgent
than ever. One neglects it because of the promising experiments of out-
siders— exactly as one slights the darkness of the situation in Europe, as
soon as somewhere a light — no matter how faint — happens to penetrate the
darkness, and an optimist seeing it thinks: Day-break!

A. Kraszxa-Krausz.

COMMENT AND REVIEW

FACTS ONLY.

The success of Madchen in Uniform is having" strange con-
sequence, it is making it harder and harder for me to run a repertory
theatre for continental talkies in London. Film producers abroad say,
If Madchen in Uniform could make such a hit in London, my picture
will make your fortune!' And they insist, week by week, on higher
guarantees."

It was strange hearing how the success of one film nearly ruined the
threatre which promoted it. But Miss Elsie Cohen was kind enough to
list for me her daily increasing difficulties, in order that Close Up could
urge its readers to co-operate more strongly with Miss Cohen's splendid
effort.

Film lover must go more often and take more friends to The Academy
and Cinema House and here are the reasons why :

" Some patrons are a little discontented that they cannot see a cer-
tain foreign picture which strikes them as being of special import-
ance. BUT, if I import even a short from abroad, I have to begin by
paying a royalty to the sound system (generally Tobis Clang).

" This royalty is a minimum £'25 for a one reel picture.

" The owners of the film have to be paid their fee, and a new copy
has to be paid for ; while transport expenses have to be covered by us.

"Then — and how many patrons realise this? — there is the duty of
one penny a foot and the censor's fee of two pounds a reel.

" With a full length picture, there is the additional expense of super-
imposed titles. This is generally about £150 : with the present feature
at The Academy, the laboratory bill and the editing expenses amounted
to £200.

" Before a new feature picture is shown on the screen, I estimate that
it will cost me £400.

" And you know how large The Academy is? We seat 600 and take
about fifty pounds for a full house. We have four shows a day, but a
cinema is considered to be doing very well if it takes a house and a half
a day.

" There is, you know, a thing called the Entertainment Tax and there
are the running expenses of a theatre. You'd be surprised, I believe, if
I told you how much our mailing list costs per week.

" Still, I think I have told you enough to let you explain why we
cannot get all the films which cineastes would like to see. Also, I hope
that these figures will convince cinema patrons that they ought to attend
each change of programme even if, now and then, there is a feature which
may not be so interesting as its predecessor."

O. B.

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THE LAST OF THE SILENTS.

So the last of Inner-London's silent cinemas has gone. The con-
struction of a News Reel theatre on the site of the little Gaiety Cinema
in Tottenham Court Road shatters what, for hundreds of London movie
fans was a sentimental link with the past.

Many of us had a strange affection for this little cinema. Situated
in the West End, flanked on all sides by far more expensive rivals an-
nouncing " hundred-per-cent." talkies, it steadfastly ignored the march
of progress, and although the months ran into years none but silent films
flickered across its battered but honoured screen.

It is doubtful if the Gaiety changed much from the day it was built
to the day of its death. The creaky piano, usually the sole accompani-
ment to the pictures, the back row of seats covered with dainty if dusty
bits of lace, the film breaks at crucial moments, the sensational challeng-
ing posters out front — all this took us back to a period long before the
talkies arrived.

And the films ! The Gaiety was .a joy for the connoisseur, for with-
out warning you would notice one day that some almost forgotten epic of
the great German era was shewing. And black-hatted intellectuals would
rub shoulders with the denizens of Tottenham Court Road's back streets,
admiring the genius of Pabst and the artistry of Brigitte Helm.

And then perhaps an unknown French or Italian production would
send us scampering along in keen anticipation. Russian films were
shewn too> — The End of St. Petersburgh ran for a fortnight. American
railroad dramas with middle-West settings, thrilling exploits of Harry
Peel, the German stunt king, revivals of incrediblv ancient Chaplins — you
never knew what you would get next at the Gaiety.

And now it has gone and a big slice of the past has gone with it.

R. Bond.

SPECTATORS' GROUPS IN AMERICA.

The film club, begun in France after the war by men like that
lamented missionary of the film-as-art, Canudo, has at last reached the
shores of the United States. North America had already inaugurated a
film-exhibition body in Mexico City ; the commercial offspring of the film
club, "the little cinema," had been Americanized and demoralized; in-
dividuals had projected their careers in corporate guilds and the like ; but
the non-ulterior film club had really never been adopted in these Yankee
provinces. And then — almost simultaneously — two appear, the Film
Society and the! Film Forum, the latter the larger body in anticipated
membership. There is no competition between these two groups, indeed
several individuals are associated with both, either officially or unofficially,

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for instance, your New York correspondent. The feature of the opening
program of the Society on January 29th was the French version of
Pabst's Threepenny Opera, a very fortunate introduction, since the Ger-
man version received an inauspicious release here (though I chose it as
my major sound film to conclude my lecture-course at the New School) by
Warner Brothers, and the brothel scene was deleted by the censors. There
is now no intact copy of the German version here ; the uncensored French
version has its first exhibition at the Film Society.* Other items in the
programme were Disney's first colour animation, King Neptune, and Oscar
Fischinger's light animation of Brahms Hungarian Dance. (The Ameri-
can distributor announces it as Brahms' Ninth Symphony.) The Film
Forum will probably have the distinction of the first American showing of
Dovzhenko's Ivan. Englishmen will be interested to know that Miss Iris
Barry, one of the founders of the London Film Society, is an executive
member of the New York society. That organization intends to devote
surplus funds to the furtherance of workers' newsreels, a growing
activity in the United States.

A third organization is the Film Guild of America, initiated by F. M.
Delano, which sponsors programs in conjunction with schools. This
joint exhibition with the Junior High School of Mamaroneck, N.Y., is
typical : Douglas Burden's The Silent Enemy, a Mickey Mouse (Mad-
Dog), Plant Growth, To-day and Yesterday, a newsreel compilation.
There is an evening performance and a junior matinee. And still a
fourth unit is the International Cinema League, a distributors' tieup which
purports to relate foreign films to courses in languages in the schools. Its
aim, the intention of Mr. Edward Ginsburg, is to get the support of educa-
tional boards in the various municipalities.

H. A. POTAMKIN.

TACHYSCOPE, DAEDALEUM AND FANTOSCOPE.

From the middle of November till the middle of December, the Royal
Photographic Society had an excellent exhibition of Kinematography,
somewhat bleakly arranged, but seething with interest. There were
examples of the earliest known instruments by which man has attempted
to portray movement in action ... an " Anamorphoscope " of 1635, an
" Anocthoscope," " invented by Plateau of Ghent with the aid of his
devoted wife after he had lost his sight through exposing them to the
bombardment of the sun's rays in 1833." Mutely inside case after case
were these early evidences of attempts to satisfy that strange longing for
expression in movement and light. A set of Kineograph Books (1868), the
first book-forms of pictures to show movement ; a Kinora Picture Viewing

* A print which contains, however, the French censor's deletion " Les riches out le
coeur dur mais les nerfs sensibles."

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Machine, with a reel showing Lottie Collins dancing " Ta-ra-ra-boom-
de-ay " ; Lumiere's combined projector, printer and camera; and among
many instruments and machines which seemed no more than toys, with
their rolls of painted figures, their mirrors, and lantern slides, such a
thing as " Life in the Lantern," described in the catalogue as " a later
development of the Bio-Phantoscope," which is " historically of the ut-
most imp'ortance," for Friese-Greene, the inventor of practical commercial
cinematography, used it at his Piccadilly shop, causing such crowds that
the police ordered its removal. This is "a vertical copper lamp-house,
having fixed about its outer surface a gallerv carrving seven photographic
lantern slides, showing Rudge apparently taking his head off his bodv and
placing it under his arm ." This was the first example of trick photo-
graphy in the world. Round these relics, the latest cameras, projectors,
and lenses. There was a strip of the first film in the world made of an
endless celluloid band: many other strips of early film, too, including a
two-colour positive of 1898. These would have gained had they been
better exhibited. There was also a piece of paper film, soaked in castor
oil to make it transparent-period 1885, but complete with perforated mar-
gins and toothed sprockets. One could peer through glass cases at the
first film review of the first display of moving pictures ; at old playbills,
and programmes of early demonstrations, photos of Friese-Greene's first
studio, prints .... these were from the Gardener Collection. The others,
naturallv, from Will Day's.

Upstairs a displav of stills from the world's familiar best films. Most
interest attached to the Japanese.

It was worth while to see how many men had to work, in how many
wavs, before the cinema that we know was evolved. It was interesting to
speculate why this and not that method proved fruitful, and to wonder
what would have happened had men of vision equal to the inventors' been
at hand to use the three marvels that ultimately supplanted Chorentoscope
and Heliocinographe — projector, camera, and screen. R. H.

PUBLICITY AGAIN.

" And still the pensive spring returns
And still the punctual snow."

Yes, these are genuine extracts from publicity sheets issued by the
leading companies ! Men are paid to sit in offices and compose this dope
for film critics !

NUMBER ONE. " Mr. X wants atmosphere. So, working on Y,
African story of sleeping sickness, he appeared in the following : One
cork helmet, one tunic, one pair of shorts, one pair high leather boots. If
it had been anyone but a director — well?" We suggest if it had been a
publicity agent ....

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NUMBER TWO. " Long" weeks spent in Greenland making Y, as
a screen epic for X, risking death from cold, from drowning in the icy water,
from being crushed by falls of ice . . . and back to civilization with a four-
inch beard and a health record you would envy . . . That's Gibson Gow-
land. Three days in England in the comparative luxury and guaranteed
comforts of civilized London and — ah-tish-oo ! That's Gibson
Gowland ! ! !"

NUMBER THREE. " Z, feminine interest in X's latest horror
screen play, claims she can live as happily on twenty-five dollars a week as
she can on twenty-five hundred."

NUMBER FOUR. Off-set, we are told, the stars wear eccentric
clothes — " floppy, sometimes sloppy pants!" " Mr. X is seldom without
an admittedly garish ' Lido Shirt ' of eccentric red-and-white stripes, and
if there is an undershirt beneath it, or if there isn't, what of it?"

NUMBER FIVE. " Clyde Beatty, King of animal trainers, says
wildest beasts respect man's superior brain. And will show it in X's latest
Screen Sensation." O. B.

Film-Studio Zurich. (Schipfe 57, Zurich).

A new association has just been founded at Zurich, with the name of
Film-Studio Zurich, and its aim is to present independent, artistic and avant-
garde films. The annual subscription is five Swiss francs which gives the
right to a reduction of fifty centimes on the ordinary prices of tickets at
representations arranged bv the society.

The same group have also created Le Groupement Cinematographique
Franco-Suisse, in order to encourage the projection at Zurich of the most
characteristic of the new French films. This will fill a gap, for at present
French films are shown at Zurich only at somewhat rare intervals. For
this the subscription is three Swiss francs which gives a reduction of twenty
per cent, on the usual ticket prices.

The activity of these two newT organisations must be of great help to
the students of cinema at Zurich, and we hope that their efforts will be
rewarded with success.

Genossenschaft Fihndienst. (21, Erlacherstrasse, Berne).

At last we have a Swiss firm of film production, and one which has
begun its career, full of excellent resolutions. Where publicity has usually
been confined to the incomparable pictorial qualities of Switzerland, this
firm stresses the need for realism and something of the native poetry as
well. Les Grenadiers du Bon Dieu, the first film the Gefi have made, was
filmed in the Loetschental, with the help of only one professional actor, and
with the people of the neighbourhood. We hope to comment further on
this film when it has been shown. Freddy Chevalley.

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THE LAKE OF THE WILD SWANS.

" No, we did not hear the swans singing, and there was noth-
ing romantic about it, neither perfume of flowers nor rays of sun dancing
over the water, but plenty of swamp, mud and dirt ; and even the land-
scape cannot boast of any particular charms."

" But I know you have been in Sweden on Lake Tokern, the dwelling
place of the wild swans, the aristocrats among the birds, and I wish vou
would tell me something about it."

This conversation took place in one of the cutting rooms of
the Neubabelsberg Ufa studios. There I got hold of him, Dr. Ulrich K.
T. Schulz, head of the Ufa Scandinavian expedition. I wanted to hear
something about singing swans, their shining waves of white feathers,
about flowers swinging over the water, I wanted to be told the romantic
legends of mysterious Lake Tokern.

" If you fancy a tale of romance and a swan's song, then vou are
bound to be disappointed. But if you want to know what Lake Tokern
really looks like, I shall be pleased to tell you.

" There are many small villages around the borders of this
lake, which is about miles long and 2 miles wide. It is extremelv shal-
low, for its greatest depth measures hardly one foot. The ground
consists of mud, which has a depth of many yards. The surface of the
lake is covered with water-plants of all kinds. It's a regular paradise for
the swans, as in the mud they can easily find plenty of food. Thev are
verv shv, these birds, and can only be approached with the utmost diffi-
culty. Bv means of shallow boats we constructed a pontoon, which we
covered with reed and rush-grass. Flatly stretched out, the camera care-
fullv hidden under reeds, we crept on the swans. So we succeeded in
photographing them at closest range. We watched breeding birds and
proud parents with three or four, sometimes even six or seven voung ones,
and we caught most wonderful and interesting scenes with our camera. We
also flew across the lake in an airplane and secured good specimen shots
from above.

" ' Enchanted Lake ' it is called by the inhabitants of the surround-
ing villages. It was tried several times to drain the lake, because they
expected to get fertile soil for agricultural purposes. But money
and efforts have been in vain. Gasses always bubbled up from the ground,
and soon again mud and swamp were covered by the ground-water. Is
there anvthing else vou want to know?"

" I confess that I am very much disillusioned. In my imagination
everything had been so entirely different. But let me ask you another
question : Do the swans stay in the North during the winter?"

" Oh no, as soon as the first frost shows, the birds start in large flocks
to the South, as far as Africa. The farmers in the villages told us it is
the most overpowering sight to see the birds rushing off in majestic flight
with their great wings spread out wide.

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" I am sorry that I had to shatter your illusions about the romance
and mystery of the ' Enchanted Lake,' but I can assure you that you will
not be disappointed when you see the pictures we have taken. For these
we must be thankful to the swans, although they failed to give us a fare-
well song when we took our departure."

Hete Nebel.

A CORRECTION.

We regret that by an oversight, Mr. Jean Lenauer stated that Mr. J.
Prevert was the author of the scenario of " L; Affaire est dans le sac."
Actually the scenario was written by Mr. A. Rathonyi, and Mr. Prevert
was the adaptor and author of the French dialogue.

MEN AND JOBS.

Events from the Russian film front have been quiet since Ekk's Road
to Life. A few Soviet talkies have been privately shewn in London, in-
cluding Death House and The Golden Mountains, but they have not
received public exhibition. It is to be hoped, therefore, that a better recep-
tion will be accorded to Macheret's production Men and Jobs which arrived
in London early in February.

Men and Jobs is fully in accord with the present social purpose of the
Soviet Cinema. The film opens with an American engineer crossing the
border into the U.S.S.R. In his pocket is a contract to work on one of
the new construction jobs.

At the plant to which the engineer is allocated a meeting is in progress
to celebrate the success of the worker Zukharov whose " shock brigade
has led all others in production tempo.

The engineer, Cline, arrives at the plant, observes the backwardness of
technique and accuses Zukharov of not knowing how to work. The two
men almost came to blows. Cline cuts down the time for a certain job
from nine to three minutes, and inspired with the slogan " Catch up with
American Technique," Zukharov's brigade resolves to enter into competi-
tion with Cline's section.

The shock brigade is spurred to greater efforts by " forced labour "
lies in the foreign press, and then follows a most thrilling sequence entirely
carried through with graphs. The director has succeeded in making charts
and graphs truly cinematic, and the audience emotion is intense as the line
representing Zukharov's brigade at last merges with and finally jumps above
the American's.

Another factory meeting is held. Zukharov, a great gawky, awk-
ward fellow, modestly responds to the applause. Cline, the American,
is then called to the rostrum.

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After much polishing of spectacles he finally achieves the following-
speech : " Udarniki — Competition — Hip, Hip, Hooray!" Tremendous
enthusiasm.

The film closes in the spirit of " American Technique plus Revolu-
tionary Enthusiasm," symbolished in the handclasp of Zukharov and
Cline.

Men and Jobs marks a big advance in Soviet sound recording, which
seems to improve steadily. The story is interesting both for its con-
tent, and for the types, who are actual workers. Macheret has handled
his material and characters with a nice sense of humour. Thus
the workers and the foreign technician are made to appear " re-
gular fellows " who, separated at first by language difficulties and different
social environments achieve finally a complete understanding.

The copy shewn in London was received from America where
Amkino had inserted English titles to explain the Russian dialogue.

R. Bond.

A TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT.

The Impassive Footman, an A.R.P. film, directed bv Basil Dean,
which does not achieve greatness, is noteworthv for a remarkablv clever
impression of going under an anaesthetic. The patient's talkativeness calls
forth the comment " He's a talkative fellow " ; and the sound consists of
the phrase " A talkative fellow " repeated rhvthmicallv with increasing
speed and volume till a maximum followed by a decrescendo . Accompanving
the sound is a picture of the heads of the surgeons as seen from below by
the patient. The heads sweep into view and out again, sweep back, rotate
rapidlv and fade out. The combined effect of sound and picture in mv own
case was an unmistakable sensation of swooning : and my companion, who
had the advantage of me of experiencing an anaesthetic, felt the same
reaction. A second sitting through the sequence confirmed the first im-
pression. It is, of course, impossible to convev the effect in words; but
I may add that it was much more convincing than similar experiments in
impressionism — for example, that seen on the stage (with the advantage of
colour) in " The Adding Machine " when Zero " sees red." M. S.

AN AVANT-GARDE FILM SHOW IN VIENNA.

The chance of seeing Avant-Garde Films in Vienna is rare. I can
remember only one occasion in connection with a photo-exhibition a few
years ago. The more thankful should we be to those who arranged a show
of Avant-Garde films in a Viennese " Volksbildungsheim "; how great
is the interest and the need for good, artistic films, was shown by the fact

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that the performance was crowded, although it was given in a rather remote
district and no special advertisement was made. The performance was
introduced by a speech by Mr. Fritz Rosenfeld, who pointed out the differ-
ence between the aims of the avant-garde artists and those of the film-
industry. The films we saw have been well known to Close Up readers
for some years : there was Montpamasse, the thrill and liveliness of which
has not faded since it was done, and which everyone liked especially;
and there was the Sky-Scraper Symphony : a way of photographing archi-
tecture— a revelation at the time the film was done — has been so often imi-
tated since that the film seemed very familiar even to those who had never
seen it ; that sort of film where everything depends on the rhythm of cutting
ought to have some synchronized music — or be shown in silence. The re-
ception !of The Fall of the House of Usher was mixed : one part of the
audience was fascinated by the play of the actors to a great extent and
another part (the greater one) was not able to follow the mystic atmosphere
of the film, and its overstrained, uncannv plot.

Trude Weiss.

THE LIGHT WITHIN.

In The Monthly Film Record for September, 1018, there appears a
review of a picture called The Light Within. A quotation of the review
as written will surely delight all lovers of the primitive movie : —

" So many ' medical ' pictures have been shown that it is quite a
feather in the producer's cap for something original to be imported into
this class of drama. Allowing for a little unconventionally in hospital
methods, the play interests, and Olga Petrova shines as usual. She is
Laurel Carlisle, M.D., married to a millionaire, Clinton, who' is obviously
as self-centered and opinionated a man as even the richest man might be.
He hates her hospital work. She is a worker. Their natures clash at
every point. She has a little boy, Donald ; also, an undeclared lover,
Doctor Leslie, who knows how to hold his tongue. Laurel has invented
still another serum — to break meningitis, which, I believe, is wrongly de-
scribed as an epidemic. Clinton goes yachting and is supposed to be
drowned. Leslie declares himself and, just as all is well between the har-
moniously inclined pair, Clinton returns. He knows what has transpired,
but holds his tongue, being one of those who smile and smile, and, say-
ing nothing, plans all the harder. Through the father's carelessness, Donald
dies. Clinton blames his wife, declaring that she had imported germs
into the house. He insults the consultant when he says that the boy died
of pneumonia. In the city the epidemic is raging. To test her serum,
Leslie offers herself as subject. Wild with rage, Clinton invades her
laboratory, and, cutting his hand, is infected with anthrax germs. In-
cidentally, he upsets the precious vial of serum. A chauffeur invades the

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Zoo and steals the mascarene turtle from which the serum is to> be made.
Leslie is saved. Clinton dies horribly."

Certainly, we would have loved to have seen this movie with its " little
unconventionality in hospital methods!"

THE CARTOON COLOUR-FILM.

We all know that colour is one of those things " just round the
corner." We know, too, that it is being kept there by the producing
firms who want to keep it, as they kept talkies, to spring on the world
when it once again begins to tire of mass-made movies. These same firms
declare that they are " refraining " from using colour till it's perfected.
That, of course, is just so much hooey.

Several isolated German advertisement films show that. Disney's
new Silly Symphonies show it even more. Two have been seen in Lon-
don. The colour is excellent. Scenes are not limited to one or two
colours in varying shades — orange-pink, orange and blood, or ink, watered
ink, faded green — as we have hitherto had to endure. The new Techni-
colour gives clear full yellow, pale blue that is clean. Light browns as
well as dark browns ; rich ivy green besides emerald and olive. A flame
no longer looks like a spilt tomato cocktail. The lightest of colours are
possible, shell-pinks, the strange green of layers of water, lily-white.

Disney was wise, of course, in being the first to hop out with this
improved Technicolour. The great accusation has always been that so
much light, and light interplay, was submerged in colour. This danger
is not incurred in cartoon films. The colour is flat, as the film is flat.
There is one dimension. Also a cartoonist is able to select his colours,
which is not possible when filming natural scenes. More noticeable is
that colour underlines Disney's methods with music. If he was cute to
use it in cartoon-films, he was even cuter to use it in! his symphonies.
They are immeasurably better than his Mickey Mouse. Mickey bores.
The formula is mechanically repeated, without surprise or novelty. The
excuses for musical entertainment, into which all Mickey Mouse films re-
solve, are few and feeble. A great deal has been said of the sound-
screen's debt to Disney. Actually, he has ignored sound. He has con-
centrated on music. One grows sick of these ducks squeaking in har-
mony, the horses playing castanets with their teeth. I imagine the road
to hell is paved with railway lines which turn out to be xylophones, lined
with cows that ring bells by pulling each others' tails ....

But with the Silly Symphonies, it is different. Music belongs to
them, as sound should have belonged to Mickey. And colour brings out
the lyricism which the music attempts to infuse. Despite marvellous
synchronisation, it is hard to regard drawing and music as always being

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one in spirit. But in Flowers and Trees, when the forest awakens to
soft music, the tenderness that is to be the atmosphere is captured visu-
ally by the soft tones of the unfolding flowers. When the old blasted oak
disturbs an idyll between two other trees by starting a forest fire, the red
flame is more dramatic than the black splodge that would have done for
it in the plain black and white drawings. The black-eved susans in this
film have definitely increased star-value, through being in colour, and the
fishes in the second symphony, Neptune, are more fantastic and less bur-
lesque than they would have been plain. Colour undoubtedly is a help
in the Disney world. His films now are one step nearer a child's picture
book come to life. Humour and drawing remain childish — colour
adds, and detracts nothing. As forerunners, they are interesting; as
symphonies, Flowers and Trees and Neptune are the best he has done.
One can see therefrom what others might do . . . . as usual.

It is, incidentally, worth noticing that Disney's 31 films for the com-
ing year will cost ±'160,000 to produce. Four years ago, 20 people were
employed making them ; now, there are over 200. The first Mickey Mouse
cartoon was made in a garage; to-day, he is housed in " a half-million
dollar plant in the heart of Hollywood." R. H.

A FILM SCHOOL IN GENEVA.

The cinema must be reformed, is the praiseworthy basis on which is
laid the ideology and curriculum of the new Marie Lachenal Cinema School,
situated at No. 4, route de Malagnou, Geneva. This school is open to
persons of all nationalities and all ages, and its year is divided into three
terms — 1st October to 31st December, 1st January to 31st March, and 1st
April to 30th June. At the end of each scholastic year, public auditions of
short films made by the school will be given.

The reform in question which begins by unifying into an idee maitresse
the work of all participants and the use of their function, proceeds to' develop
the idea at the expense of any personal element — in much the same way,
it would appear, as the State Institute of Cinema at Moscow. A course
can be taken in each of the following branches — Acting, Music, Scenario
Writing, Stage Directing, Scenic Art. Courses for the training of
Ensembles are established in order, to give to each one the opportunity to
benefit by work accomplished in other branches.

Full particulars can be obtained from the Secretary at the above address.

Mr. A. Y. Pilichowski explains his sketch of a cinema of the future :
" What seems required for a cinema to be truly cinematic is a more imme-
diate contact between the screen and the audience. My suggestion is for a

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panoramic screen; the idea being that the screen should encircle the
audience and thus make it part of a complete system. Mobile multiple pro-
jectors would throw pictures on the screen, the action being started at one
end and terminated at the other. Visibility would not be required to be
perfect from every seat at the same time, a certain element of interest being
aroused by hiding, revealing, and hiding again the picture as it sweeps
around the screen. The peculiar charm of the Elizabethan theatre or the
intimate and spontaneous reactions experienced at the circus would be
recaptured."

BOOK REVIEW'S

In Leisure in the Modern World, by C. Delisle Burns (George Allen
and Unwin. 8/6), it is good to hear the statement made that leisure is the
most valuable product of modern mechanism, but that it is gener-
ally scorned and wasted.

As regards the levelling effects of " modern improvements," for he
believes that all great individuality is based on a large store of common
experience, and that common comfort makes for a greater tendency for
experiments. " The more you know of other people the more you may
dislike them : bridging the gap may be only increasing the tendency to
fight on the bridge." It's not always a case of out of the frying pan into
the fire : some sausages jump clean !

For the attention of cineastes, there is a special chapter on leisure and
the cinema. O. B.

Paine and Lillian Gish.

Mr. Albert Bigelow Paine, biographer of Mark Twain, immortalizes
Lillian Gish in a biography as sententious and vapid as its title, " Life
and Lillian Gish " ('Macmillan : $3.50). The book has been sufficiently
roasted by every literary and dramatic critic who touched it, but it was the
book only they profaned, not the Gish who was, at the time of its appear-
ance, undoing " Camille " on the New York stage. She, they declared,
was not the camelia-lady, nor especially an actress of ability, but simplv Gish
and that was enough. Too much I'd say. Her " etherealness " is a legend
built up by the Wagenknechts, Hergesheimers and Georgie Nathans.
(Emile Gauvreau, Frankenstein of peephole journalism, in his book " The
Scandalmonger " speaks of " George Gish Nathan.") I have just re-seen
the waxen dame in the old Griffith pictures : The Battle of the Sexes, Intoler-
ance, Hearts of the World, and whatever beauty there is in the Gish of her

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girlhood was the work of G. W. " Billy " Bitzer, the cameraman, of whose
value Miss Gish long ago expressed her appreciation. The Paine book may
be characterized by the legend he quotes from Allene Talmey : " What are
you looking at, Lillian?" Mrs. Gish has asked for years. " Nothing,
Mother, just looking !" H. A. P.

Writing for the Films, bv L'Estrange Fawcett, Sir Isaac Pitt & Sons, Ltd.
3/6 net.

A useful \itt\e vade mecum which will make depressing and even sicken-
ing reading for those who hope to bring ideas to the film. Mr. Fawcett's in-
formation is, unfortunately, all true, and the impartiality of his telling in no
way reduces the feeling of horror inspired by the morass of childish vulgarity
in which commercial films are conceived, shaped, censored, and shown. His
list of unequivocal and approved subjects for film writing — it must be read to
be believed ! Yet how true it is ! What a world !

For those who are not fully aware of what they are likely to encounter
in their uphill climb to success as a scenario writer, it will be kill or cure.
Is a Revolution in Method. Coming? forms the last chapter. It is deductive
but not verv hopeful. How could it be? K. M.

BOOKS IN A BUNDLE.

" Do ring me up, I have a telephone now."
" Oh! ves? Any particular number?"

That condenses some of the futility of life, but little of the futility of
life in film novels. Actual working in of details about studio work gives
an excuse for working out of time-rubbed (hair-over-collar effect) plots. A
pitv ! a little more effort and the genuine film-land would make a worth-
while book. There is the parable to shock — the tale of the lady in the
caravan who had to go to the lavatory on a bicycle because there were
no trees for miles around. Yet . . . . !

Film Lady, by James Wedgewood Drawbell (Collins. 7/6) deserves
an ivy leaf to show it's a good effort, just as a poet draws an ivy leaf on
her best sonnets to help editors. Lighter scenes are not shrill and the
conversation is easy : intenser moments clatter to the bottom like a Spanish
rack-and-thumbscrew railway. Monica in the Talkies, by Richard Starr
(Sampson Low. 7/6) gives the vertical rather than the horizontal approach.
The backgrounds have not the authentic quality of Mr. Drawbell's . . . .

It is amusing to see how characters from film books wander into the
new novels. Especially author-favoured is the film star with two secre-
taries who, when progressing in a taxi, travels at third hand. Richard
Oke, however, in Wanton Boys (Gollancz. 7/6) managed to introduce a

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very human star-on-the-wane. Fabian, by Eric Kastner (Cape. 7/6) has
a heroine who stars in quite a neat scenario. A man forces his wife to
change her personality, night by night, to wear different clothes and become
a different tvpe of mistress-wife. At length the woman begins to change
her personalities automatically; finally she turns into the hard, bitter tyrant
the man most dreads ....

INTERVAL for refreshment from Mary Butt's Death of Felicity
Tavener (Wishart. 7/6), the most ambient of recent novels. " Like others
of our age, thev had rediscovered also the still-life, that, however it may get
itself painted, it is not ' nature morte,' but that each haphazard arrangement
can be composed of formal perfections of shape and light — plates on a table,
a basket of folded linen, a sea-scape off the beach in a glass dish. They
knew that the twenty-four hours of the day and night are a cinema, an
actualite, a continuous programme, whose hero is the sun and whose heroine
is the moon, whose plav is the modification of light, whose pathos is sunset,
with sunrise for epiphany."

Elegy in Memory of D. H. Lawrence, by Walter Lowenfels (Carrefour,
16, Rue Denfert Rochereau, Paris. 15 shillings) is part of a much longer
poem. Reality Prime. Th^ author says, " I have had in mind a form of
operatic poem : verse, music, moving design, synchronized on a recording
instrument: reproduced, from records, privately by the ' reader.' " The
verse, though, seems to us to be too mental in the sense of being written
too closely to a prose programme. We might call it GEOMETRY-ON-
VELVET. Again, we find the programme with its biologv, flies breeding
maggots out of sacrificial flesh, Orphic wheels, birth from historic womb,
etcetera, too, the occult Mrs. Beeton. It would be happy to see it fall into
shape were music and film added to the author's conception. These little
things make a difference. It was in a British International Pictures' press
sheet that we read the correction for the previous week's issue, when the
word SNIPER should have read SINGER.

The Austrian year book of photography appeared on Charing Cross
Road. A man of wit remarked to us, " It is like Congress Dances before
it learnt how to !"

O. B.

.4 New Periodical has appeared in England, which demands effort and
offers achievement. That in itself is a change and a recommendation. Not
a review but a creative quarterly, the first issue of SEED contains poems,
by among others, H. D., Mary Butts, A. S. J. Tessimond, and stories by
Sidney Hunt and Oswell Blakeston. It is called " the magazine of great
distinction," but " a paper of growth " would bo at least as true a descrip-
tion, since a note states that " though SEED'S contributors are among the
world famous, the editors are especially anxious to find new talent," and it

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may be said that SEED is a magazine fit for its contributors to read. The
next issue, which will be out in April, with work bv Bryher, Emily Holmes-
Colman and Kay Boyle, can be obtained for two' shillings from any book-
seller by mentioning Joiner and Steele, 18, Took's Court, Chancery Lane,
London ; Zwemmer and Charles Lahr, of Red Lion Street, are special
agents. It is edited by Herbert Jones and Oswell Blakeston, with special
attention to typography, and published by E. Lahr, 68, Red Lion Street,
W.C.I ; but the editorial address is 9, Thornton Hill, London, S.W.19.

Le Cinema Contre Lui-meme. Ch. Dekeukeleire. (Ed. de la Nouvelle
Equipe) 29, Rue Nestor de Tiere, Bruxelles.

The author resumes in this book several arguments from his Reforme du
Cinema which has already been reviewed in Close Up. He adds to them
several constat alio ns from facts that he has been able to observe.

To the number of factors concerning the purely commercial exploitation
of the Belgian cinema, Ch. Dekeukeleire adds the immense publicity given to
the star, a veritable organisation to glorify such or such an actor, an to
impress them upon the attention of the public until at last it is persuaded
that the slightest gesture of its idol is important. Most magazines give in
and fill up their columns with photographs or correspondence of which the
subject, colour of hair, beautv cream preferred, etc., reveals how efficacious
is this system of publicitv.

And to all reproaches the film purveyors answer, " but it is what the
public demands." It would not be difficult to prove the contrary and the
truth is probably that the public, contented or discontented, simplv does
not react with enough energy either wav to give anv indication of value.

When sound films began, big firms withdrew all their silent films from
circulation. It is the customarv procedure for anv industrial firm anxious
to float a new production, and the film, in this instance, was merely treated
as a commercial article. We may add from our own experience, that this
withdrawal of silent films had the character of an imperious command before
which all renters who had remained faithful to silents were forced to purchase
new projection equipment.

" To deceive the intellectuals and the recalcitrant in the audience, some
independent directors are lured to the studios, where thev are accorded a
few liberties that hide an actual slavery," Rene Clair said recently. Eisen-
stein and Dreyer could not resign themselves to abdicate their power, and
how we sympathise with them.

The avant garde cinema, so much on the decline last year, appears to
be recovering and if well directed and well supported by lovers of film, it
may save cinematography. But there must be a direct link between the
people and the technicians, and not any longer just a vague collaboration, or

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a narrow circle of initiates. For it is not a question of bringing exclusive
ideas to the masses, but to dive instead into popular life, and to discover
there sensitive and human motives.

Ch. Dekeukeleire, always the poet, ends bv requiring that this " trust "
in brains, this submission of machine and spirit to commercial ends be sup-
pressed, and that the cinematographic industry be reorganised on a human
basis.

Henri Poulaille, in L'Age Ingrat du Cinema, (Cahiers Bleux) insists
upon the socialogical value of cinematography and shows the disorder that
has existed since the arrival of sound.

G. W. Pabst stated recently that it is impossible for him to make the
films he wants, either in Germany or in France. A narrow nationalism,
chauvinism, futility and restricted vision are ever obstacles in his path.

Ch. Dekeukeleire has reason therefore for his protests and we cannot
do other than approve them. All the same it would seem impossible to
lower any bridge between his ideals and the commercial and industrial
reality. So long as capital is invested in the cinema in the same way as it
is invested in the manufacture of tins of sardines, films ought to be exploited
in a commercial way. The onlv possibilitv to establish a film art, is for
those who love cinema and thev are many, to found a collective and inter-
national organisation which would permit of rational activity. Let the
cinema dividends go in what direction they will, provided that lovers of the
screen mav be able to satisfy their wishes. The full development of the film
industry can be furthered only in constructing beside the big studios, well
equipped workshops for the independent groups and for all those able to
make trulv good films.

Freddy Chev alley.

Jahrbuch fur Photo graphie, Kinematographie und Reproduktionsverfahren
fur die Jahre, 1928-1929. Edited by Hofrat Dr. J. M. Eder, E.
Kuchinka and C. Emmermann. XXXI. Band, I. Teil. [Wilh.
Knapp, Halle (Saale), 1931.] Price: RM. 18.

This work is so well known that it need not be introduced to the experts
of photography, cinematography and technics of reproduction. The year-
book could not be published during the vears of the war and so a huge
material was piled up to be sorted and worked up ; the thirtv-first volume,
the first part of which has already been published reaches to the vear 1929
and gives an account of anything new in this sphere. The yearbook suffered
a great loss when E. Kuchinka, one of its editors, who had worked on the
" Graphische Lehr-und Versuchsanstalt " in Vienna, died in 1930. Bui
the reputation of C. Emmermann, his successor, guarantees the unchanged
quality and thoroughness of that standard-work.

T. W.

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Filmbiicher fiir alle, edited by Kraszna-Krausz, 3, " Filmentwurf , Film-
regie, Filmschnitt " von Alex Strasser Verlag : Wilh. Knapp, Halle
(Saale). Price RM 5.30.

This book contains 160 pages, 117 illustrations, and is a manual of
film direction for amateurs, containing — as the subtitle tells — laws and
examples with regard to the planning, directing and cutting of films. As
there are a lot of cheap cinema-cameras available nowadays, which are
comparatively easy to handle, the number of amateurs of cinematography
has largely increased ; they have learned the technical details, but they
usually lack experience as to the artistic aspect and for those who' want to
turn more than some odd scenes the present book will give useful instruc-
tion. It gives a survey on the different kinds of film (document, play-film,
trick-film, etc.), suggestions for various plots, and describes the way from
the idea and expose of a film to a useful scenario. There are chapters on
cutting and on subtitles. What is most admirable in the book is that —
like the others of these series — it does not explain things merely theoreti-
callv, but illustrates them with many instructive examples.

T. W.

A VIENNESE FILM-BOOK.

Vienna and the film — that is a strange chapter in the history
of cinema; a story of platonic love ....

There is, and always has been a film industry in Vienna, but it has
never gained influence in the world. Viennese artists have become popu-
lar in other countries, have made careers in Berlin or Hollywood, but in
the studios of their native city they are not to be found.

The landscape of Vienna, the Viennese humour, which is said to be
one of the outstanding features of our national character — these always
serve as " staffage " for Viennese films turned by foreign, directors.
Viennese music with its Wiener lied and Vienna waltz, assures estimable
music. The studios of our city — their number is three or four — are rented
by French or German companies, but for years not one really important
film has been created to indicate clearlv that Vienna was its birthplace,
either in subject, milieu or conception. Nothing to show that it was in
its own home in Vienna.

And what is characteristic in the films applies also to some extent to
books written about them. The experts of other countries (Eistenstein,
Pudovkin, Hans Richter, Guido Bagier) write works of practical instruc-
tion, but works which contribute to film theory (Bela Balasz, Fulop-Miller)
come from Vienna.

Now a new book is lying before me ; The Film Age (Das Zeitalter
des Films) by Dr. Josef Gregor of the Vienna National Library, where he
is director of the theatre section, annexed to which are the Archives of

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Film Sciences (Archiv fur Filmkunde), founded and directed by Dr.
Gregor. They contain a great number of pictures and books pertaining
to cinema, and represent an institution devoted to the theoretical side of
film making.

The book profits by all the experience the author has gained in his
dual capacity as head of the Archives and professor in the Max Reinhardt
school, and, last but not least, as an attentive spectator in the cinema. It
is a book on the spiritual foundations of the film, on its position in the
culture of our time, written by a doctor of philosophy ; not for the greater
public, maybe, which wants to know how a film is made, and not for
directors and dramatists of large film trusts, whose interest is in how to
make better films . . . . ( ?)

This book contains observations only, but no practical hints, it reveals
the historical development of the film as a cultural factor, and the psycho-
logical reasons for the effect produced in such a surprising degree on the
civilizations of the twentieth century. The author is not a fanatic, not an
artist wholeheartedly devoted to the film, but an impartial observer who
sees both advantages and disadvantages, and who finally does not grant
the film its right as an art !

More than two hundred illustrations help to explain Gregor's ideas;
they certainly emphasise the scientific character of the work.

The first chapter deals with the history of the film, and links the con-
nection of present-day culture with that of former times, showing — in too
much detail sometimes — how the desire of men to capture eternal motion
is as old as mankind itself. In our time this desire has reached a culminat-
ing point, and, rightly, Gregor calls our age a " visual age, an age always
wanting the form even without the content," and he confirms his statement
by examples chosen from other spheres.

In the analysis of film dramaturgy, to which the third chapter is de-
voted, the question is excellently reduced to specific examples. Gregor
here proves an attentive and cultivated spectator, capable of recognising
deficiencies better than the film expert — to whom the pictorial effect and the
effective progress of the action are apt to seem over important. And here
also the old problem of differentiation between film and theatre, to which
attention cannot be called too often, is explained.

" The film and contemporary art " constitutes the last but one chapter
of the book, and here is treated the mutual influence of film, theatre and
literature on one another. At the end the problem of the suggestive effect
of the film is analysed from the point of view of psychology. The effect
of music, to which rhythm is as necessary as it is to- the film, is used for
comparison. And especially where he examines rhythm and its effect on
the spectator (and now also the listener) Gregor is able to clarify many
things which have been sensed unconsciously only by those seeing
the films. " Optic-acoustic effect " is his expression for it, and in his

CLOSE UP 95

opinion, it can sometimes be an evil effect, produced by machinery, whereas
with other arts it comes from the depths of the soul. An old rebuke which
takes little count of what is essential in the dynamics of film expression !

From this pessimistic prognosis, Gregor draws the conclusion that in
the film the spiritual component is represented by amusement of the most
primitive kind ■ — the material, and far more influential component being
profit. At the end of the book the wish is expressed that the film might
become the passage of the spirit of art that is to come.

The Film Age is the bold and honest confession of a man who' — always
referring art to the deca)nng but still existing" standards of culture — defends
himself against the suggestive influence of the film. In spite of this, film
lovers, who serve the cinema with their artistic strength, should read this
book in which the art of the film is denied.

I v lara Modern.

SPECIAL OFFER

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numbers of Close Up previous to 1931. We are unable to
bind more sets as several numbers of each year are out
of print.

Available

Three issues of 1927.

About seven issues of 1928, covering the
early Russian film and the most important
developments of the silent German cinema.

A few odd numbers of 1929, with articles
on the beginnings of the sound film.

A very few numbers of 1930. The end
months of this year are completely out of
print. 1930 covers however the most im-
portant period of sound film development.

Any three of the above will be sent to any address in
England at a cost including postage of half-a-crown, or to
any address abroad for three shillings. We have no copies
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shillings in England for the two, including postage, and six
and sixpence abroad.

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A HISTORY OF THE MOVIES

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The author of this book shows us the potentialities
and pitfalls, the strength and weaknesses, the hum-
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He goes further, and tells us, as Mr. Pepys would say,
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cussed. The book gives a clear, unbiassed and
authoritative account of film-production as it has
been, is now, and will be. No one inside or out-
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be entertained by its manner.

WITH A PREFACE BY JACK HULBERT

DENIS ARCHER

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ANTHONY IN EGYPT:
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GATE OF NAPLES

The original Frank Brangwyn Etchings are
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These fine reproductions have been specially prepared,
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All those who appreciate beautiful pictures will delight
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Mr. Brangwyn's subjects are magnificent scenes in Italy, France,
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Prices : £l . 1 . 0 for each picture mounted, or £l . 11 . 6 framed
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100

Satiric Preface
to a Film

Villiers David

poem

g A few copies of The
London Mercury, No. 1 565
containing this brilliant
satire are still obtainable 9
price 2/- post free, from I—

The Publisher. 229 Strand, W.C.2

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From the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Law

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102

These books should be
in your collection:

Does Capital Punishment

Exist ? By Dr. Hanns Sachs

On the face of it the question seems needless. It must be
realised, however, that the act of hanging, shooting,
electrocuting, can be a riddance but not a corrective Dr.
Sachs, an eminent psychologist, brings ample material to
prove that " Capital Punishment " can be only a drastic
failure of Justice. Absorbing reading.

Price 1/-

The Lighthearted Student

By Bryher and Trude Weiss

One of our most successful books. A series of German
lessons made more entertaining than Backgammon or
Corinthian bagatelle ! Hundreds of people have learned to
understand German talkies with its engaging help !
Price 2/6 Postage 3d.

Film Problems of Soviet

RUSSia By Bryher

A record of the silent film in Russia, during the most
significant period of its development. Essential for students
and film-historians. Almost out of print.

Price 6/- Postage 4d.

Bound Volumes of Close Up

The encyclopaedia of film progress. All volumes obtainable
(except Vol. I) at prices ranging from 10/6 to 25/-.
Particulars on application.

103

PETER DAVIES

.SUCCESSES ALREADY PUBLISHED THIS YEAR

Woodforde Papers and Diaries 10/6

iiaiieu D\ VJ . rl. \ v r \JtKLJiL

St. Augustine : Rebecca West 5/"

Cecil Rhodes : William Plomer 5/-

Ivar Kreuger George Soloveytchik 5/-

(Sinner's Library)

Cora Pearl : Baroness von Hutten 5/-

(Sinner's Library)

MARCH gth

Oscar Wilde : : G. J Renier 5/-

Casanova : Bonamy Dobree 5/-

MARCH i6th

/Outh at ^KriTIS ■ 1 pnnarrl R^mps 5 /"

MARCH ^oth

Trial by Virgins David Larg 10/6

A Life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti by the Author of Ruskin (5/-)

30 Henrietta Street - - - W.C.2

104

the magazine for distinguished people Sw^^dM edited by

Herbert Jones and Oswell Blakeston. Double Issue for April
In the April Issue : KAY BOYLE Br y her EMILY IIOLMES-

colemax Leone Barry oswell blakeston
L en Lye joib \ betjeman Francis Bruyuiere
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Contents

PAGE

An American Tragedy. S. M. Eisenstein .. .. .. .. .. 109

" Prague Castle " and Other Czech Shorts. Karel Santar .. .. .. 125

Continuous Performance. Dorothy M. Richardson . . . . . . . . 130

Towards a Co-operative Cinema. E. Coxhead .. .. .. .. .. 133

The Nature of Film Material. Robert A. Fairthorne .. .. .. .. 138

Something New in the Motion Picture Theatre. Frances Blake .. .. 154

Why War ? Einstein and Freud, International Institute of Intellectual

Co-operation. H.A.M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Teaching Music by the Abstract Film. Oswell Blakeston .. .. .. 161

The Making of the Russian " Star." Marie Seton .. .. .. . .' 163

The Foreign Language Film in the United States. Herman G. Weinberg .. 167

The Travelling Camera. Erno Metzner . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

What Shall You Do in the War ? Bryher 188

Storm Over Hollywood. Clifford Howard .. .. .. .. .. 192

Comment and Review : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Film & Photo Exhibition ; New York Film Society ; Ecstasy ; Counter
Plan ; Medical Films ; Quicksilver ; It's a Racket ; Manchester Film
Society ; Television ; Censorship in Portugal ; Miscasting Directors ;
Notes from America ; Book Reviews. Manifesto on Eisenstein 's
Mexican Film.

London Correspondent :
Paris Correspondent :
Berlin Correspondent :
Geneva Correspondent :
Hollyzvood Correspondent :
New York Correspondent :
Moscow Correspondent :
Vienna Correspondent :

Robert Herring
Jean Lenauer
A. Kraszna-krausz
F. Chevalley
Clifford Howard
H. A. Potamkin
P. Attasheva
Trude Weiss

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■

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Vol. X. No. 2 June, 1933

AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY

S. M. ElSENSTEIN.

(Note. — This is the conclusion of Eisenstein's article on work in the GIK — the
Moscow State Institute of Cinema. The first instalment appeared in the December
Close Up, having arrived after the issue had gone to press, but so great was the
enthusiasm it created, decision was made to include it as a sort of seasonal message
of good-will !

The second part appeared in the March issue, and now this — incentive which might
well promote enthusiasm to utility — to the final expulsion of drivel from our
screens ! Well might ! It rests with you who read it. Uphill work ! — Ed.)

The most interesting part of our work — it is the most important part
of creative production — is the instruction of the students in the " treatment
of a subject and the analysis of the procedure connected therewith.

From the sublime to the ridiculous, it is only one step.

From the sublime, basic idea, expressed in a motto, to the living pro-
duction, it is two hundred steps.

And if we only take one step, we get the ludicrous results of facile trash.

The student must learn to make three-dimensional, rounded produc-
tions, starting from the flat, two-dimensional patterns; from the motto to
the subject without a break.

A practical problem in connexion with the analysis of a work for the
purpose of serious ideological montage once confronted the writer in con-
nexion with his own work, though under somewhat unusual social conditions.

This was at Hollywood.

Among the " Paramount " people.

And it was in connexion with the treatment and production of a work
of high quality.

Even if not devoid of ideological defects and not altogether in harmony
with our own sociological standpoint, Theodore Dreiser's " American
Tragedy " is a first-class work. It is even a work which has every chance
of being numbered among the classics of its age and country.

The fact that this material would inevitably furnish occasion for col-
lision between two irreconcilable points of view — that of the film bosses
and our own — became apparent the moment the first draft of the libretto
was delivered.

109

110

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Is Clyde Griffiths guilty or not guilty in your treatment?" asked
the boss of the Paramount Californian studios, B. P. Schulberg.
" Not guilty," was the reply.

But in that case your scenario is a monstrous challenge to American
society. . ."

I explained that I regarded the crime committed by Griffiths as the
net result of the social conditions to whose influence he was subjected at
every stage in the evolution of his character and career as unfolded in the
course of the film.

This, in my opinion, constitutes the whole interest of the work . . ."

To which the}' replied : " But we should prefer a strong, simple detective
story about a murder ..."

" And about a love affair between a bov and a girl ..." they added
with a sigh.

The possibility of two such radically opposite treatments of the central
protagonist of the story is not really surprising.

Dreiser's novel is as broad and shoreless as the Hudson ; it is as
immense as life itself, and it admits of any point of view in relation to its
theme, like every central fact of Nature herself. His novel is 99 per cent,
exposition of facts and 1 per cent, commentary upon them. This epic of
cosmic veracity and objectivity had to be worked up into a tragedy, which
was unthinkable without some well-defined philosophical standpoint and
direction.

The film bosses were concerned with the question of guilt or innocence
from an entirely different point of view. Guilty meant unlovable. And for
the principal hero to be suddenlv unlovable ! — What would the box-office

say ?

And if he were not guilty . . .

As a result of the difficulties arising out of this " confounded question,"
" An American Tragedv " lav untouched in the Paramount portfolio for
more than five years.

It was tackled by Griffith (not Clyde this time, but the patriarch of
cinematography, David Wark) and Lubitsch and a great many others.

With their customary prudence and caution this time, too, the bosses
evaded a decision .

They proposed to us that we should make up the scenario " as you feel
it " — and then it would be easier to judge . . .

From what has been said, it is perfectly plain that in this case, as
distinct from others, the divergence of opinions did not in any way turn
upon the treatment of a particular situation ; it was very much more pro-
found and far-reaching ; it concerned the sociological treatment of the work
as a whole.

It is curious to note how production, conceived in this way, begins to
determine the structure of the individual parts; and how, above all, by its

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111

112

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demands, it influences the treatment and psychological interpretation of
particular situations; and, in fact, the " purely formal " side of the creation
of the work as a whole. Curious, too, how it suggests completely new,
purely formal " methods which, gradually, and in conjunction, help to
evolve a new theoretical conception of the guiding principles of cinemato-
graphy as such.

It would be difficult to set forth here the whole plot of the novel in
question — to do in five lines something for which Dreiser required two stout
volumes. We shall only touch upon what, viewed from outside, constitutes
the climax of the tragedy — the murder itself ; though the tragedy, of course,
does not lie here but in the fatal course embarked on bv Clvde, who is
driven to commit murder by social conditions. And in our scenario the chief
attention is directed to this fact.

We see how Clyde Griffiths, having seduced a young working girl em-
ployed at the work-room of which he is in charge, is unable to help her to
secure an abortion, which is still strictly forbidden in the United States.

He sees himself forced to marry her. To do so, however, would abso-
lutely shatter all his dreams of a career, since it would make it impossible
for him to marrv a rich heiress who is madlv in love with him.

The situation itself is profoundlv characteristic of America where, among
the industrial middle classes, there are not as vet any caste barriers to prevent
such a misalliance. In this class there still prevails the patriarchal demo-
cratic spirit of the fathers, who have not forgotten how they themselves came
to the town in rags to make their fortunes. The succeeding generation is
already approximating to a moneved aristocracy ; and in this connexion it
is interesting to note the difference in the attitude towards Clyde adopted by
his uncle and his cousin respectively.

However that may be, Clvde is faced with a dilemma : either he must
renounce for ever his prospects of a career and of social success, or he must
get quit of the first girl.

Clyde's adventures in his contacts with American realities have bv this
time already contrived to mould his psychology in such a way that, after
a long internal struggle (not with moral principles but with his own weak-
ness and indecision) he decides on a desperate expedient.

After much reflection he prepares to murder the girl by the upsetting of
a boat — which will appear to be the result of an unfortunate accident.

He ponders all the details with the exaggerated carefulness of the inex-
perienced criminal — a carefulness which in the end inevitablv entangles such
a dilettante in a fatal network of incontrovertible evidence.

And he sets out in a boat with the girl.

In the boat the conflict between pitv for the girl and repugnance to her,
between weak vacillation and the craving to snatch at brilliant material
blessings, reaches its climax.

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113

Half consciously, half unconsciously, in a wild inward panic, he over-
turns the boat.

The girl is drowned.

Leaving her to her fate, Clyde makes his escape in the way he had
planned beforehand, and is caught in the meshes of the net which he himself
had woven.

The affair with the boat takes places as similar incidents take place; it
is not sharply defined and complete ; it is like a tangled skein. And Dreiser
presents the incident quite impartially, leaving the further course of events
to be shaped by the logical evolution not of the subject but ... of the course
of the law.

We had to emphasize Clyde's ACTUAL and TECHNICAL innocence
in connexion with the actual perpetration of the crime.

Only by this means could we make sufficiently plain the " monstrous
challenge " to a society whose mechanism brings a rather characterless youth
into such a situation and then, invoking morality and justice, seats him in
the electric chair.

The sanctity of the FORMAL principle in the codes of honour, morality,
justice and religion is regarded in America as something primary and funda-
mental.

On this principle is based the endless game of advocacy in the courts and
the matching of lawyers and parliamentarians one against the other. The

" The First Right o f Children " {From the Diary of a Woman-doctor), a Deutsches-
Lichtspiel-Syndikat Film.

" Le premier droit de Venfant " (tire du Journal d,une docloresse) un film
Deittsches-Lichtspiel-Syndikat.

114

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"The First Right of Children" (From the Diary of a Woman-doctor), a Deutsches-Lichtspiel-

Svndikat Film.

" Le premier droit de V enfant " (tire du Journal d'une dcctoresse) un film Deutsches-Lichtspiel-

Syndikat.

essence of the question ostensibly in dispute is an altogether subsidiary
matter.

Therefore, the conviction of Clyde, even if essentially deserved in virtue
of the part which he essentially played in the affair (which does not interest
any one) would, if he were technically innocent, be regarded in America as
something monstrous, as a judicial murder.

Such is the shallow, but transparent and unshakable psychology of the
American, which accompanies him everywhere.

It was not from books that I had become familiar with this side of the
American character . . .

Therefore it was essential to develop this scene with the boat into an
indisputably clear proof of TECHNICAL innocence.

Without, how ever, in anv way w hitewashing Clyde or acquitting him of
blame.

The following treatment was adopted :
Clyde wants to murder the S'irl but he cannot.

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115

" The First Right of
Children " (From the
Diary of a Woman-
doctor), a Deutsches-
Licht spiel - Syndikat
Film.

" Le premier droit de
Venfant " (tire du
Journal d'une doc-
toresse) un film
Deutsches - Lichtspiel-
Syndikat.

At the moment when resolute action is necessary, he stays his hand.
Simply from weakness of will.

However, before his inward "failure," he succeeds in exciting in
Roberta, the girl, such a feeling of terror, that, when he bends over to her,
alreadv vanquished and ready to abandon his design, she jumps awav from
him in alarm. The boat rocks and threatens to overturn. When, as he
is trying to support her, his camera accidently grazes her face, she finally
loses her head; in her terror she stumbles and falls and the boat capsizes.

For greater emphasis we make her rise to the surface again. We even
make Clyde attempt to swim to her rescue. But the machinery of crime
that has been set in motion continues its work to the end — even against
Clyde's will : with a faint cry of horror Roberta starts away from him, and,
not being able to swim is drowned.

116

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Clyde, who is a splendid swimmer, makes his way to the shore, and,
on coming to his senses, continues to act in accordance with the fatal plan
which he has drawn up for the intended crime and from which he has
only deviated for a moment.

That the situation gathers greater psychological and tragic depth in this
form is beyond dispute.

The tragic element becomes heightened to a sort of Greek " blind Moira
— destiny," which, once conjured into existence, will not relax its hold of
the person who has dared to provoke it.

It is elevated to a tragic casuality, which, once having entered upon
its rights, impels to its logical conclusion the inexorable sequence of events
which has been set in motion.

This crushing of a human being by a blind cosmic principle, by the
inexorable course of laws over which he has no control constitutes one of
the basic premises of antique tragedy. It symbolizes the passive depend-
ence of the man of that day on the forces of nature. In this it is analogous
to what Engels, in connexion with another age, writes about Calvin :

"... His doctrine of predestination was a religious expression of the
fact that in the commercial world success or failure depend not on a man's
energy or skill but on circumstances beyond his control." (Engels:
" Historical Materialism ").

Reversion to the atavism of primitive cosmic conceptions, visible
through a chance present-day situation, is always one of the means of
raising a dramatic scene to the heights of tragedv.

But our treatment is not confined to this. It is pregnant with signifi-
cant stressing of a whole series of stages in the furber course of events. . .

In Dreiser's book the rich uncle, for the sake of preserving the honour
of the family, supplies Clyde with the means of defending himself.

The Counsel for the Defence has not reallv any doubt that Clyde has
committed the crime.

Xone the less, he concocts a theory of a " change of heart " experienced
by Clyde under the influence of love and his pity for Roberta.

Not bad when it is simply invented off hand.

But how far worse when there ACTUALLY was a change of heart.
When the change of heart was the result of quite other motives. When
there was no actual crime ; while the Counsel for the Defence is convinced
that there was a crime, and, by a flagrant lie, so near to and at the same
time so far from the truth, slanders the accused in the attempt to whitewash
and save him.

And, from the dramatic standpoint, it becomes still more fatal if, im-
mediately after, by the ideology of your treatment you violate the propor-
tions and the epic impartiality of Dreiser's narrative in yet another passage.

The whole of the second volume is almost entirely taken up with the
trial of Clyde for the murder of Roberta and with the hounding on of
,Clvde to his final doom, to the electric chair.

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117

Only in a few lines, however, is it indicated that the true aim of Clyde's
trial and conviction has nothing to do with him. The aim is simply and
solely to win the necessarv popularitv among the farming population (the
work-girl, Roberta, was a farmer's daughter) for the prosecuting counsel,
Mason, so that he may secure nomination as an elected judge.

The Defence take up a case which they know to be hopeless (" at the
best — 10 years penal servitude ") merelv as part of the same political
campaign.

Belonging to the opposite political camp (but not by any means to a
different class) their primary aim is to do their utmost to damage the
chances of the odious candidate for judicial office.

For both sides alike Clyde is simply a means to an end.

Clyde is a pawn in the hands of a blind destiny, but he also becomes
a pawn in the hands of a by no means blind machinerv of bourgeois justice,
a machinen' which is nothing else than an instrument for the political
machinations of by no means blind political intriguers.

Thus the individual case of Clyde Griffiths is expanded and generalised
into what is really a tragedv of America as a whole, into a characteristic
storv of an American " voting man " of the beginning of the 20th
century. ...

From the dramatic version all the elaborate complications of the
judicial procedure are omitted and in their place appear the pre-electoral
intrigues, visible behind the outward solemnity of the hall of justice, which
is nothing else than the private arena of a pre-electoral contest.

But this radical treatment of the murder succeeds in deepening the
tragedy of strong ideological emphasis tipon yet another passage and
another figure.

The mother.

Clyde's mother is the head of a religious mission. An embodiment of
blind fanatism. Of such absolute belief in an absurd religious dogmatism
that her figure takes on a certain monumental quality, a halo of martyrdom,
and wins our involuntary respect.

And this despite the fact that she is really the first concrete embodiment
of the guilt of American society in relation to Clyde.

Her teaching and principles, her concentration on God and heavenly
things instead of on the training of her son for work, were the first basic
causes of the tragedy.

In Dreiser's story she fights to the last for her son's innocence. She
works as legal reporter of a provincial newspaper in order to be able to be
present at his trial. She, like the mothers and sisters of the black children
from Scottsboro, tours America, giving lectures, in order to collect money
with which to secure re-examination of Clyde's case in the Court of Appeal.

The mother acquires the definite sacrificial sublimity of a heroine. In
Dreiser's storv this sublimity is capable of winning sympathy for her moral
and religious doctrines.

118

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" The First Right of Children " (Fiom the Diary of a Woman-doctor) , a Deutsches-
. Lichtspiel-Syndikat Film.

Le premier droit de 1' enfant " (tire d:i Journal d'une doctoresse) un film
Deut sches-Licht spiel- Syndikat .

In our version, Clyde, in the death-ceil, confesses to his mother that
he did not kill Roberta, but that he wanted to do so.

The mother, who clings to the ultra-Christian belief that a sin in
thought is equivalent to a sin in deed, is deeplv shocked.

And, by reason of a sublimity quite the opposite to that of the mother
in Gorkv's stoiw, this mother too becomes her son's betraver.

When she goes to the Governor to petition for the revocation of her
son's sentence, she is embarrassed by the point-blank question : " Do you
yourself believe in your son's innocence?"

At this moment, which is to decide the fate of her son, the mother is
silent.

The Christian sophism as to the equality of action in thought and
action in deed which is an absurd parody of dialectical principles, leads to
the final tragic denouement.

The petition is rejected and discredits alike the dogma and the dogma-
tism of its bearer. And this moment cannot be washed awav by the
mother's tears at her last leavetaking with the son whom she has, with her
own hands, delivered over into the jaws of the Christian Baal. And the
more poignant the sadness of the last scenes the more forcible is their ex-
posure of this Mumbo Jumbo ideology.

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119

" The First Right of Children " (From the Diary of a W oman-doctoi) , a Deutsches-
Licht spiel -Syndikat Film .

" Le premier droit de V enfant " (tire du Journal d'une doctoresse) un film
Deutsches-Liclit spiel- Syndikat.

Here the curious formalism of American dogmatism would seem to be
supplemented by the contradictory element of Messianism, which actually
proves to be the same lifeless dogmatism of a formal principle in the domain
of religion. And this is only natural, in as much as both are fostered to an
equal degree by the same social class system.

By our treatment we succeeded, in our opinion, in tearing off at any
rate some of the masks — though by no means all — from this monumental
figure.

We reconstructed the mother's role as best we could.
The pastor, McMillan, we eliminated from the scenario entirely.
And Dreiser was the first to appreciate the merits of our reconstruction
of his work.

Not without cause are we witnessing at the present time Dreiser's
gradual desertion of the ranks of the petit bourgeoisie and his approach
nearer and nearer to ourselves.

In our version, the tragedy within the framework of the novel is con-
summated much later.

The cell. And the electric chair. And the brightly polished spittoon
— from personal observation in the prison of Sing-Sing — at his feet. All

120

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this is merely the conclusion of an individual embodiment of that tragedy
which' continues to be enacted in the United States even- hour and every
minute, not in fiction but in fact.

It might perhaps be imagined that the formula we selected — the
formula of a sociological treatise — would prove dry and didactic, but in fact
it enhances the poignancv of the situation and affords a deeper insight into
the types and characters of the protagonists.

And further it exercises a profound influence on the purely technical
methods. It was thanks to this formula, for instance, that the idea of the
" internal monologue " was finally evolved in connexion with cinemato-
graphy. This idea has been engaging" my mind for the last six years.
That is to say, I was preoccupied with it before the advent of the sound
film made possible its realization in practice.

We need, as we have seen above, an extremelv clear and definite ex-
position of what was happening in Clyde's mind before the actual moment
of the accident with the boat, and we saw clearly that this could not be done
by a mere presentation of external happenings.

Knitted brows, rolling eyes, spasmodic breathing, contorted frame, a
stony face, convulsive movements of the hands — all this emotional apparatus
was inadequate to express the subtleties of the internal conflict in all its
phases.

We had to photograph what was going on inside Clyde's mind.

We had to demonstrate audiblv and visibly, the feverish torrent of
thoughts, interspersed with external action, with the boat, with the girl
sitting opposite, with his own actions.

The form of the internal monologue was evolved.

These montage sheets were wonderful.

Even literature is almost powerless in this domain. It has to confine
itself to primitive rhetoric, as in Dreiser's description of Clyde's inward
broodings, or to the still more blatant mendacity of the pseudo-classic tirades
of O'Neill's heroes who, having enlightened the public as to what they are
saying, enlighten it in a second monologue, uttered aside, as to what they
are thinking.

The drama is even more impotent in this matter than orthodox literary
prose.

The film alone has at its command the means of presenting adequately
the hurrying thoughts of an agitated man.

Or, if literature can do it too, it can only be literature that transgresses
its orthodox bounds.

It is brilliantly achieved, as far as is feasible within the harsh frame-
work of literary limitations, in the immortal " inward monologues " of
Leopold Bloom, in James Joyce's wonderful " Ulysses."

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121

And not in vain, when I met Joyce in Paris, did we eagerly discuss my
plans in regard to the inward film monologue, which has far wider possi-
bilities than the literary monologue.

Despite the fact that he is almost completely blind, Joyce was very
anxious to see those parts of " Armoured Train " and " October " which,
in the cinematographic sphere of cultivation of means of expression, pro-
ceed along kindred lines.

The inward monologue, as a literary method of abolishing the distinc-
tion between subject and object, with a view to a crystallized presentation
of the hero's experiences, is first observable in the literary experimenters
round about the year 1887, for instance, in Edouard Dujardin's " Les
Lauriers sont coupes."

As a theme, as a philosophy, a perception, an object — not a method —
of description, we meet with it, of course, before this date. Transition from
the objective to the subjective and back again is pre-eminentlv character-
istic of the writings of the romantics.

E. T. A. Hoffman, Novalis and Gerard de Nerval (in regard to the last-
named, see " La Double Vie de Gerard de Nerval " by Rene Bizet).

But in them it is a method of literary narration, not of plot-weaving;
and its forms are the forms of literary composition.

As a specific method of exposition, as a specific method of construction,
Ave first encounter it in Dujardin ; but it does not attain absolute literary
perfection until 31 years later — in Joyce and Larbaud.

But only in the film, of course, can it find full expression.

For on\y the sound film is capable of reconstructing all the phases and
the specific essence of the process of thought.

What splendid drafts of montage sheets these were !

Like thought, they proceeded now by means of visual images — with
sound — synchronized or non-synchronized. Then, as sound — formless —
or with sound images : sounds symbolizing objects.

Then suddenly, by the coinage of words formulated intellectually — in-
tellectually and dispassionately, and so uttered. With a black film —
hurrying, formless visibility.

Now, by passionate incoherent speech. Only substantives. Or only
verbs. Then by interjections. With zigzags of aimless figures, hurrying
along with them synchronously.

Now, visual images hurried along in complete silence.

Now sounds were included in a polyphony. Now images. Then both
together.

Now interpolating themselves into the external course of events, now
interpolating elements of the external course of events into themselves.

Presenting, as it were, the play of thought within the damatis personae
— the conflict of doubts, of bursts of passion, of the voice of reason, by

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quick movement, or slow movement, emphasizing the difference in the
rhythms of this one and that and, at the same time, contrasting the almost
complete absence of outward action with the feverish inward debates —
behind the stony mask of the face.

How fascinating to listen to one's own train of thought, particularly- in
a state »f excitement.

To discover how one talks " inside oneself," as distinct from out-
wardly. To study the syntax of the internal as opposed to the external
speech. To discover what quavering internal speech accompanies the
simultaneous visual image. How the}- contrast with outward circum-
stances. How they react upon one another. . .

To listen and study with a view to grasping structural laws and com-
bining them for the purpose of composing an internal monologue express-
ing with the utmost possible intensity the conflict of tragic experience.

How fascinating.

And what scope for creative invention and observation.

Schulze Versus Everyone," a new Carl Froelich Verleiher-Kollektiv film. Ida Wiirst and

Lilli Schonbaitm.

" Schulze contre tons," nouveau film Verleiher-kollektiv de Carl Froelich. Ida Wiirst et

Lilli Schonbaitm.

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Schulze Versus Everyone."
" Schulze contre tons."

And how obvious that the material of the sound film is in no sense —
DIALOGUE.

THE TRUE MATERIAL FOR THE SOUND FILM IS, OF
COURSE, THE MONOLOGUE.

And how unexpectedly, in its practical embodiment of the unforeseen
particular concrete case of expressiveness, this completely harmonizes with
the " last word " about montage form in general, which I had long fore-
seen theoretically : namely, that the montage form, regarded structurally,
is the reconstruction of the laws governing the process of thought.

Here the special art of treatment, having evolved a completely new
formal method, transcends its limits and embraces the theory of montage
form as a whole. This, however, does not bv anv means implv that the
process of thought as a MONTAGE FORM must alwavs necessarily have
as its SUBJECT too — the process of thought.

However, Mr. B. P. Schulberg and Mr. D. S. Washington did not
allow the " red dogs " (our official nickname in fascist circles) to express

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all this on the screen, to launch a " monstrous challenge " to American
society and give practical expression to this 180 per cent, advance in sound
film culture. . .

We parted and pursued our several wars, like ships on the ocean. . .
. . . And von Sternberg filmed the piece — directly, literally — the other
way rourTd, as it were, discarding everything on which we had based our
conception and including in the picture everything that we had discarded.

The idea of an " internal monologue " never entered von Sternberg's
head. . .

Von Sternberg confined his attention to -w hat actually made a straight
detective story.

Dreiser himself, like a grev-haired lion, fought for our so-called " dis-
tortion " of his work, and wrathfully did battle against the Paramount
people, who had produced a formally and outwardly correct version of his
subject.

Two years later the screen witnessed O'Neill's " Strange Interlude,"
which, by its dual and triple reproduction of speaking voices round the
silent figure of the hero, still further aggravated the ponderous clumsiness
of his dramaturgical cuneiform script. A flagrant caricature of the montage
possibilities of the internal monologue.

The work of our collective regisseur is of a similar type. The defini-
tion and estimation of a work by means of the treatment. But, above all,
with a realization of the constructively artistic and formerly fruitful role of
what has here become a tedious and forced ideologically and ideological
persistence.

Realization not in a scheme but in the living organism of the produc-
tion. This is the principal work which confronts our collective regisseur —
the collective regisseur of the 3rd course of GIK.

And though we shall seek the actual theme for this work in every tract
of the ocean of diverse and striking thematic material around us, I believe,
none the less, that the first experiment along our path w.ll be the evolution
of a film on a theme that has long been awaiting treatment — the theme of
the " 20th Centurv Youth " — " the vouth of the U.S.S.R."

Moscow, October, 19-32.

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From Hackenschmied's rhythmic and architectonic sound-film study, " Prague
Castle," produced by Ladislav Kolda.

Photo du film : " Chateau de Prague," etude sonore de rythme et d' architecture
de Hackenschmied. Production Ladislav Kolda.

"PRAGUE CASTLE" AND OTHER
CZECH SHORTS

Recently in Prague three interesting shorts have been produced : —
Prague Castle, Burlesque and Construction . They belong among those few-
experimental films made in Czechoslovakia which endeavour to find new
ways and methods of artistic cinema expression.

Prague Castle was made by Alexander Hackenschmied and is an attempt
at formal cohesion of music and film image. The music and images of this
film rise simultaneously as equal components of the whole. When compos-
ing the movement and inner content of the images, special attention was paid
to the tones determined to accompany them, while, on the other hand, music
was composed with regard to the resulting effect when accompanied by the
images. The theme of this film is in the mixture of architectonic styles of
all times as they are to be found in Prague Castle. The alternation of these
styles, as well as the contrast in their shape and expression, condition the
dynamics of this picture and determine the musical motives, not emotionally
but formally. The value of this film lies therefore not only in its pictorial
and musical composition but chiefly in their inter-connection. A. Hacken-
schmied in collaboration with the author of the musical score, Frantisek

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" Prague Castle," a film by A. Hackenschmied.
" Chateau de Prague," film de A. Hackenschmied.

Bartas, is preparing a new film of the same kind, having for its theme Sea
and TP inter.

Jan Kucera is responsible for the direction of the other two shorts. His
Burlesque is a film of no action, its chief purpose being to show the rhythmic
continuity of shapes of things. Beginning with a scene of mechanical
character, made by a trick, the curve of shape dramaticism is graduallv en-
hanced and culminates in the mass-scenes where men are in utmost violent
movement (these are the war-scenes). Then follows again calmness either in
the continuity of scenes or in their content. The pure visual impression of
this film is emphasized by music of Miroslav Pone. Burlesque has a length
of only 300 metres.

Kucera's second film Construction, depicts the development of the
construction of a twelve storey building in Prague. In collaboration with
architects K. Honzi'k and J. Havicek, Kucera endeavours to show in this
film the new methods of modern architecture, to express the stir during the
construction and the progress of work from architects' plans to the monu-

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mental building with many stories in which a whole city is hidden. The
work of the labourers as well as the work of the machines are here linked
together in a strange activity which gives no idea of what the aim of it is,
but the result is absolutely precise and beautiful. Construction attempts to
display before the eyes of the spectators one of the most outstanding features
of the face of the modern world. Length 1,000 metres. These two last
shorts were produced by Elektrajournal, Prague.

Karel Santar.

A trick-film studio in nature. The authenticity is vouched for by the artist, Pal !
Un studio de film truque en pleine nature. L'artiste en garantit V authenticity !

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"Journey of a manuscript" by Oszvell Blakeston. Not intended as a warning to contributors !

" Itineraire d'un manuscrit," par Oszvell Blakeston. L'avertissement ij'est pas destine aux

correspondants eventuels !

CONTINUOUS PERFORMANCE

One can grow rather more than weary of hearing that the Drama is on
its death-Joed. For although there is no need to listen to them, it is not easy
to escape the voices of the prophets of woe. They sound out across the
world at large, and each little world within it has private vocalists. And
there is a certain grim fascination in the spectacle of their futility. What are
they ? What purpose, since no one heeds their warnings, can they possibly
serve ? Are they the lunatic fringe, the outside edge of common prudence,
the fantastic exaggeration that alone seems able to command fruitful atten-
tion ? But they don't, in their own day, command fruitful attention, nor do
all of them exaggerate. " Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that slay est the
prophets, hadst thou but known in this thy day the things that belong unto
thy peace!" Woe over tribulation that might have been averted if the
prophets had been listened to. But in the little world of The Drama, the
mourning prophet, true or false, gleams with a perfection of meaningless-
ness. If his word be false, what does it matter ? If true, what can be done ?
For though cascades of tears may relieve the hearts of those at the bedside,
they will not restore the patient.

Meanwhile Drama, variously encumbered, goes its way. And from time
to time a play appears — either refreshingly of its time or, equally refreshingly,
standing well back within one or other of the grand traditions — and deals
with its audiences much as did, when first they dawned, the plays that now
are classics, assembled in groups under period labels.

Yet still the prophets howl. And so monotonous is their note, that it
is a relief to hear one howling with a difference. Lo, says this newcomer,
the drama, is starved for lack of good new dramatists, but all is well with the
theatre, since it can carry on with revivals. Triumph-song of an inheritor.
Drama comes and drama goes, but the stage goes on for ever. Selah. No
matter that one disagrees with his diagnosis. One can stand at his side and
drink to the drama in general, date unspecified.

But this prophet has not done with us. Having passed sentence on The
Drama, and forthwith commuted it on account of past achievements, he
turns to the Film. We learn that the Cinema, like the stage, is starving for
lack of good writers. Unlike the stage, it has no classics to fall back upon
and must therefore starve to death. Result : the days of the Cinema are
numbered.

Why, it may well be enquired, since everyone knows that there is, the
world over, a sufficiency of good films to keep going for an indefinite period
the cinemas run for those who prefer good films and more than a sufficiency
for those who prefer other films, why tilt at such a preposter-
ous windmill? Why not enquire, with transatlantic simplicity, " What's

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biting you?" And why not politely indicate one or two recently-appeared
masterpieces and point out that they could be exhibited in the world's leading
Cinemas simultaneously, whereas the stage —

Quite. But there is in this prophet's outcry something more than a
pessimism so neat and so mathematical as to have the air of a pastime not
unlike a jigsaw puzzle. And while indeed it might be a pastime to oppose
the statement on its own ground, in the accredited heavy-weight boxing
style of the debating-society, bv retorting" that if the Stage can worry along
on classics, so can the Cinema, bv filming these classics, it may not be out
of place to take a look at the unconscious assumption underlying this
prophet's neat equation. The assumption that the Cinema is merely the
Stage with a difference. For this assumption is one that the general public,
including ourselves, is daily more and more inclined to make. Growing
talkie-minded, we increasingly regard the Film in the light of the possibilities
it shares with the Stage.

For Stage and Screen, falsifying the prophecies of those who saw in
the Talkies the doom of the Theatre, have become a joint-stock company, to
the benefit of both parties. Thev, so to speak, try things out for each other.
Successful plays are filmed, successful films are made into plays. Insensibly
therefore, the screen's patron, the general public including ourselves, while
more or less constantly aware of the ways in which Stage outdoes Film and
gets the better of Stage, is apt increasingly to regard the Film as the pur-
veyor of Drama.

We hear of a good film. Born as a film. Or as the brilliant by-product
of an obscure novel. Or as the screen equivalent of a good play. The
organiser of the cinema showing this film obligingly indicates the times at
which it may be seen. We look in. See our play and come away. We are
play-goers.

But Cinema could subsist without these events. And could make us
attend to it. And even these are ultimately dependent, for their pull on us,
upon the peculiar quality of the film's continuous performance, the un-
challenged achievement that so overwhelmingly stated itself when the first
" Animated Pictures " cast their uncanny spell with the dim, blurred, con-
tinuously sparking representation of a locomotive advancing full steam upon
the audience, majestic and terrible.

It was the first hint of the Film's power of tackling aspects of reality
that no other art can adequately handle. But the power of the Film, of Film
drama, filmed realities, filmed uplift and education, all its achievements in
the realm of the Good, the True and the Beautiful, appealing to the many,
and in the realm of the abstract, appealing only to the few, rests alike for the
uninstructed, purblind onlooker and the sophisticated kinist, upon the direct
relationship, mystic, joyous, wonderful, between the observer a continuous
miracle of form in movement, of light and shadow in movement, the con-
tinuous performance, going on behind all invitations to focus upon this or

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that, of the film itself. And if to-morrow all playwrights and all plays should
disappear, the Film w ould still have its thousand resources while the Stage,
bereft of its sole material, would die. Except, perhaps, for ballet?

Dorothy M. Richardson.

Chaliapine iti " Don Quixote," which had its premier recently in
Paris, and bronglit Pabst the Legion of Honour.

Chaliapine dans " Don- Quichotte " presente tout recernment a
Paris. Ce film a valu d.son auteur, G. W. Pabst. la legion
d'honneur.

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Chaliapine as Don Quixote.
Chaliapine dans la peau de " Don Quichotte."

TOWARDS A CO-OPERATIVE CINEMA

The Work of the Academy, Oxford Street.
I.

Everyone knows the Academy Cinema. When we say Academy, it is as
often as not, (and how shocked our grandfathers would be to hear it) that one
we mean. It is more than a cinema; it is a policy, a promise, a guarantee.
Something one has in common with other people, a topic of conversation, a
means of making friends.

To understand the Academy and its aims, one has to go back more than
three years, back, in fact to 1916, when Elsie Cohen, a young woman fresh
from college, and rather interested in films, found Wardour Street open to

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Dorinlle as Sancho in the French version of " Don Quixote." George Robey
plays the part in the English version.

Dorville est Sanchn dans la version francaise de " Don Quichotte " et George
Robey est son sosie figure pour V edition anglaise.

women, as so many fields were then which' now are not. She walked into
a post on the Kin emato graph Weekly, and began, from the excellent vantage-
point of a technical paper, her apprenticeship to the oddest trade in the world.

She soon observed that there were a good many interesting film happen-
ings in other countries besides America. There was German v, for instance,
and there was also Holland, where a small company was making films
specifically for the English market. The difficulty of getting information
about them suggested to her that the company needed a good publicity
manager. She wrote offering her services, and by return — those were the
happy, haphazard days — was invited.

Her work for this company included, in the end, everything except
actual direction. She managed the studio, sold films, travelled everywhere,
even getting to the States and selling the first European film. When the
company was dissolved, she already knew her way about the film world; she
went to Berlin, coming in at the end of the great silent period. She stood
over Vaudeville and Motion, and had her fingers in many interesting pies.
So far, just the chequered career anvone might have in the Trade.

But already she saw in it more than a trade. She grew yearly more
convinced that the most important film work was scarcely heard of in England,
let alone seen ; but that there were people at home who would be interested,

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people who never went to films at all, but would be won over by the new
kind of film, which struggled for a footing against the old. The audiences
of Germany and France appreciated and understood ; and so would the right
audience in England.

She came home, and found films in a state of apathy. For a time she
worked as floor-manager in English studios, but the lack of organisation
made a too painful contrast with' those of Germany. Everyone, she said,
spent their time hanging around waiting.

The idea of catering for an intelligent film public was growing in her
mind. People seemed interested. She was constantly asked about her ex-
periences in Germany, about the new films from Russia, about the chances
of getting old films revived. Onlv the Trade was not interested at all. She
could find no one to finance her.

For years she waited, being discouraged and laughed at with a dreary
persistence. It was not till 1929 that she had anv kind of opportunity;
the little Windmill Theatre fell vacant for six months, and she was allowed
to try out a highbrow season which was a success. But then the theatre was
taken for other purposes, and her pilgrimage in the Trade wilderness began
again. Finally she secured the support of Eric Hakim ; in 1931 the Academy
opened with Earth. Everyone gave the scheme a six weeks' run. But it
seems likely that of all London's film policies, it will have the longest life.

II.

The policv of the Academv, like all living ideas, has developed since
its birth, and one change is notable. At first it was definitelv a repertory
cinema, and showed interesting pictures without regard to their age or the
number of times thev had been seen before. The audience clamoured for
revivals, and the difficulty of seeing again in an ordinarv cinema a picture one
has once liked was, and for that matter still is, acute. The Academy worked
off a good manv of the great silent pictures during 1931, and then the audience
began to show an interest in new work and to ask for it. This accorded with
Miss Cohen's own desire to encourage fresh ideas, and the Academy changed
over to a policv of premieres and longer runs. The new sound films West-
front 1918, Kameradschaft, The Blue Express were shown, and their im-
mense success established the cinema as important. Even the Trade noticed
it, and was uneasily stirred.

From the beginning, Miss Cohen realised that the ordinarv clamorous
methods of film publicity were useless ; the public she worked for had long been
deafened bv them ; it had to be approached quietlv, rationale, told the
really important thing about each new picture, the director, the technical
staff, the country and place of origin, the artistic aim. Onlv circularising
could convev all this information. She started a mailing list, quite a small
one. The names on it now run into thousands and a good many of them are

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people who live far away, but like to know what is going on and come up
to London specially for a particular film. Ten of the Academy circulars are
posted each week to China. The recipients intend to come up too, in time.

So the co-operative spirit of the Academy began. The audience began
to write in its turn, asking for this and that, criticising and suggesting.
Gradually the Academy became a nucleus of intelligent film thought, a
meeting-ground and a clearing house for ideas. All the interest which had
been floating in the air for a vear and more before it opened, it gathered,
and in some sense interpreted by its programmes. It was a very great
service to the cinema. Small groups and film societies, valuable though
they are, cannot by their very nature do such a work ; because their members
constitute, finally, a clique, and a clique, do what it mar, is alwavs in the
end driven into an attitude of intellectual conceit ; and also because they are
so often dominated by one strong personality. The Academy has been
broad enough to escape intellectual snobbery, and Miss Cohen sufficiently
wise, experienced and wholehearted to efface herself and see her audience as
a whole. Her years on the Continent and up and down Wardour Street did
that for her; they fitted her to guide, and to guide impersonally, what is
fast becoming a national movement.

The Academy films have included three Pabsts, five Clairs, the Dutch
Pierement, the Swedish En Natt, the American Quick Millions, the Russian
Blue Express and Road lo Life, the German H auptmann von Kopenick,
Madchen in Uniform, Barberina, Emil and the Detectives ; that gives some
idea of the breadth of choice. Not all these films have pleased everyone;
they have not all pleased Miss Cohen equally ; but that is the point. Each
one had some new and particular merit, and for that it was shown, regard-
less of the prejudices of any particular section of the audience. Only by
encouraging a wide appreciation can such work as the Academv keep its
educative value.

On the other hand, its relations with the amateur film societies all over
the country have been more than friendly; in many cases it has kept them
alive. Miss Cohen is at present acting as a quite unpaid agent and source
of supply to these rather bewildered amateurs; she passes on to them her
films, supplies them with endless information and advice regarding the
securing of films, and listens with amazing patience to all their long and
often unreasonable demands. As she is verv well aware, the new intelli-
gence and understanding of cinema which they represent is tremendously
valuable to her. It is preparing the ground for a chain of Academies in
every bi£ town, and this, of course, is her ideal. Not until her work is
national can it really be said to have succeeded. When she can again find
the capital and the encouragement, this chain will be established, for her
plans have a way of working themselves out. The further plan of a film
club and social centre at the Academy itself is at present held up for lack of
space ; but the need for it is great, and Miss Cohen is undoubtedly the person
to carry it through.

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Of course there has been criticism of her programmes ; but apart from
her deliberate policy of broad-mindedness, the extreme difficulty she finds
in getting the right films at the right time must be taken into account. Her
market is the whole world, and this gives plenty of room for the rapacious-
ness and obstinacy which seem everywhere to characterise the renter of
films. Over and over again she is held up in the most urgent negotiations,
because huge sums are demanded for first British rights of films which
would have no appeal in the ordinary commercial market. A chain of
cinemas would, of course, help matters here.

In my opinion, the greatest work of the Academy is the establishment of
quite new relations between exhibitor and audience. As its ideas spread,
the theatre itself will become less important ; it will end as just one of a wide
circle of theatres working on the same plan. But the spirit of co-operation
which it has fostered will increase; the ideal of a thinking audience, as
opposed to an audience which is spared all thought by the exhibitor's own
policy, may finally become the most powerful factor in the Trade. And it
will be high time. Not until that happens can we expect a consistently
high standard of film production. For we know well enough that in the
last instance it is the audience, not the artist, that makes the film ; the artist
can only supply a demand which is already there. The film is our responsi-
bility, and the co-operative film theatre our best way of creating a film that
is worth while.

E. Coxhead.

Design by Len Lye for Osioell Blakeston's book of poems, " Death While Swimming," revieiced

in this issue.

Croquis de hen Lye illustrant : " Mort en nageant," poemes de Osicell Blakeston commente's

dans le present fascicule.

THE NATURE OF FILM MATERIAL

By Robert A. Fairthorne.

The logical analysis of any art is of necessity incomplete because, hav-
ing found the units, analysis is concerned with structure, not with content.
To the mathematician a symphony, the printed score, and the shape of
the grooves on a gramophone record are equivalent, since their parts, what-
ever they may be in themselves, are similarly related in each case. They
are equivalent only so long as quantitative relations are the relations con-
sidered. In practice not quantitative, but qualitative properties are
immediate to the senses : for instance, only an intellectual process will con-
nect the printed dots and dashes of the Morse code with the corresponding
flashes of a lamp. The abstract quantitative relation of periodicity, i.e.,
" flashingness, " is however, immediately apprehended as being common
to the print and to the light. As the film has a foundation of such quantita-
tive relations, it is evident that logical analysis is of some use to it. Besides
being powerless in dealing with content analysis has another defect. This
is best illustrated by pointing out that no investigation of the appearance
of the sky can reveal the groupings of stars we know as constellations, for
they are not stars but arbitrary mental selections.

Because of these two limitations, and also because of the essentially
practical nature of art, it is often felt that the analysis of an art is useless,
and in fact impossible. Nevertheless within its limits anah-sis can be very
useful. Although the content of units can introduce new relations, they
cannot alter the fundamental logical relations, and the structure of all
relations is a logical problem. The common structure of the symphony,
musical score and gramophone record is not destroyed by the properties of
air, printers' ink, and shellac, or by the intrinsic differences between the
sensations of sound, sight, and touch. No one writing a symphony can
ignore these differences, and also no one writing a svmphonv can ignore
the structural properties and possibilities of his material.

There are two main problems of film theory. The first is the investiga-
tion of the properties of the raw material, and the second is the investigation
of its manipulation. The technical processes by which the raw material is
produced and manipulated are not theoretical consideration at all. This is
not to say that the film theorist is to ignore all practical details, and evolve
a special type of film capable of only mental performance, though it is
quite a good way of drafting a preliminary scenario. On the contrary, it
is to say that the film theorist should be in such close touch with practice
that he can throw light on the use of new technical developments and suggest
lines along which further research would be profitable. Theory should
know what is wanted before it is available. To do this it is necessary to start

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from the fundamental properties of the film, and not from the technical
concomitants of film production, that is, silver marks on celluloid.

With the second problem of film theory, manipulation, this paper is
not primarily concerned. However, since in practice our knowledge of
film material is derived from our knowledge of the film as such, some
reference to manipulation is advisable.

The practical importance of the camera and of the technical processes
of kinematography have had an unfortunate restraining effect on the film
theorist. " The camera as a means of expression " is more a problem of
practice than of theory, and is certainly no more fundamental than the
neglected " Chemistry as a means of expression," a chapter heading not
to be found in any book on the cinema to date. The technical method by
which visual impressions are given to the audience is irrelevant to the
fundamental nature of the film. Visual impressions might be given by
banks of light sources like sky signs or, some day, by impulses applied
directly to the optic nerves, the result would still be a film. The practice
of projecting an ordered series of still pictures comes from the physiological
fact of the persistence of vision and the commercial fact of photography,
not from any fundamental necessity in the film itself. Even if there were
no cameras the film could, and did, exist. The appalling labour required
to produce a film by any other process does not alter the fact that photo-
graphy is primarily a convenience. The only property of the camera and
microphone of importance to theory is that they can, after a fashion, repro-
duce what is roughly described as " natural events." The effect of this
property on certain types of film material will be considered later.

The only achievements of film theory, which cannot be shaken by
technical developments are also those which are independent of the origin
of the material considered. Unfortunately these achievements can be
summed up very shortly. First the fact, made explicit by Vertoff, that
visual events are the raw material of the film, the intellectual significance of
the film being governed by the spatio-temporal relations* of the ordered
material. Second Eisenstein's amendment, that the spatio-temporal rela-
tions are re-modified by the content, visual and intellectual, of the material ;
and that there is a superimposed hierarchy of types of relations of increasing
intellectual content (in his notation, Tonal and Overtonal Montage), which
are of as great importance as, if not greater than, the original chronometer-
footrule relations.

It will be clear from what has been said that the film is not the same
as its material. A row of soldiers is a row, not soldiers, though it cannot
exist without the soldiers. A film is not a collection of shots, though they
are necessary for its existence. It is the relations of an ordered arrangement
of shots, the relations of these relations, and so on, that is the film. Cuts,

* I use the word relations in preference to the more popular metric, because it has
the required meaning, and the word metric has a definite mathematical use and no other.
The mental association of the popular word with footrules has resulted in some rather
dubious technique.

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fades, and mixes cannot exist in their own right, being- relations between
shots, but they are well known to be real parts of the film, although they are
entities of higher logical order (i.e., of a higher degree of abstraction) than
the original visual impressions. Incidentally the use of very lengthy mixes
in otherwise representational scenes, a habit with J. v. Sternberg, can be
criticised in that they introduce relations of the wrong logical order, besides
causing "visual confusion.

All this is obvious when stated directly, but it is rather surprising to
find obviously compound relations between the material discussed as if
they were the material itself. Much tangled analysis has been wasted on
" moving camera " and " slow motion " shots. All shots are moving-
camera and slow-motion (and at the same time, fast-motion) shots, unless
every component of the image is stationary. Evidently a moving-camera
shot is meaningless in an abstract film, while slow motion can only be
introduced by repeating the same shot at different rates. This considera-
tion gives a clue to the nature of these devices. They are not shots, but the
relations between the shots and the visual experience of the audience. The
experience and memory of the audience are essential parts of a film.
Moving cameras and slow motion are of the same tvpe of entitv as the
shape of the screen, mixes, fades, cuts and other geometrical and temporal
interrelations between shots and parts of shots. They only differ in that
they are related to events outside the screen. In anv case thev are, as has
been shown, limited to material that is representational. The immense
practical importance of representational images to the cinema, resulting
from the predominance of sight over other senses, should not blind us to
the possibilities that lie outside this comparatively small field.

Digressing slightly attention should be given to the limitations of
the camera even with representational shots. The camera gives a perspec-
tive rendering of three dimensional space on a surface.* Perspective repre-
sentation as a " true " representation of reality is a convention of quite
recent growth, mainly confined to the Western civilizations. Even there
it is bv no means universal, as raav be seen in advertisements and art
galleries. The most " straight " of documentary films is absurdly con-
ventional and symbolic when looked at without preconceived notions.

Returning to the search for the raw material of the film, it is now clear
that this material consists of the units whose interrelations make the film,
not of the interrelations themselves. This does not cut out all possible
errors, another is frequently made in the opposite direction. This is the
assumption, the worse for being implicit, that the " frame " or single still
picture is the fundamental film unit. The cause of the error is the un-
merited theoretical importance given to fortuitous technical methods. From
the point of view of the film cutter the frame is certainly the unit, being the

* Cameras can only give an image deformation by rotation, translation, and homo-
graphic (affine) transformation. Devices for what is cacophonously and inaccurately
called Optical Anamorphosis have the same limits, but can separate the types of
deformation.

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" The Deserter,"
Pudovkin's last film.
An unemployed com-
mitting suicide.

" Le Deserteur,' c
dernier film de
Poudovkine. Un
chomeur se donne la
mort.

The Deserter.'' Waiting for the
strike-breakers.

' Le Deserteur." En attendant les
briseurs de greve.

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NOTE ON PHOTO. [Exclusive to Close Up].

After Light Rhythms, Bruguiere wanted a short with light as solid. We tried to
get backing from various film societies and groups : they, however, said, " We can
prove we're sane, here's our ticket of discharge from the asylum." In one case, authori-
ties preferred to give backing to a four reel picture which never got past the cutting
room, while we had only asked for moderate sum to make solid constructions for light
reflection. The light solid film would have brought further technical innovation than
Light Rhythms, would have shown more clearly that cutting is but one method. (From
Close Up, March, 1930: " Close ups are not cut in, a beam of light sweeps them into
prominence, leaves a section of the screen hung by chains of its rhythmic swing. Cross
cutting means nothing when light is fluid."). One chance remained, to make but des-
cription of decoration while tracing out theory. Taking ready made shapes which were
theories of all theories (the cone and the sphere for instance ! ), and, by planes of exposure,
rhythm of light, movement of camera, complex object movement, interpenetration of
sound, build a short other than backwash of original and more costly visualisation.
Still, after a few days spent with strip tests we had to realise that even this simplification
was too costly. Now that the film will never be made, perhaps this photo may prove
of small historical interest to the cineaste. It is the only souvenir of the project, and
represents a first groping for a basic statement in the opening sequence.

O. B.

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smallest part into which a film can be divided without losing its identity;
but even the cutter has to recognise a property impossible in a still picture.
This property is the position of the frame in the film.

If a film really consisted of single frames and this propertv was there-
fore non-existent, there would be no difference between a number of pictures
hung on -the wall, in order at the same time, and the projected cinema
image. Some kind of order is essential, besides the order in space that
makes the still picture. For a film this order must be in time as well as
in space. This conception immediatelv involves a series of pictures as the
unit, rather than a series of unit still pictures. A single unit cannot be
arranged in an order.

To distinguish between a still picture and an ordered group of still
pictures may be considered a quibble, but a group is a very different thing
from the members of which it is composed. Mankind is not a man. The
simplest thing that can be seen in a film is not a series of still pictures, but
the relations between a series of still pictures. The audience perceive a
man moving, not a series of pictures of a man in different positions.

The last example raises the point ; what is the size, so to speak, of the
film units? From a geometrical standpoint every portion of a film, how-
ever small it may be, is composed of an infinite number of film units
arranged in space and time. The ordinary spectator does not, however,
see the movement of an arm as the co-ordinated play of light and shade in
an indefinite number of small elements distributed in space and time. He
sees it as one event, the action of an arm. The answer to the query as to
the size of the unit is known to all directors, — the size depends on
the mentality of the spectator. Actually, as we are concerned with
properties rather than with measurements, the answer is not of much
importance.

As an example of the relational nature of the film unit compared with
a picture, consider the relationship between the frames which results in
a motionless film image. This relation is identity in space, but not in time.
The audience apprehends this relation as lack of motion of definite duration,
the duration being caused bv the lack of temporal identity in the frames.
Even in this very simple case the motionless film image is by no means
the same as the corresponding still picture. Duration is not a variable in
the graphic arts, which deal entirely with spatial relationships. Music
does include duration, and the possibility of and necessity for combining
the methods of these two branches of art in the film, even in the absence of
sound, helps to give the film its extraordinary power. The idea of duration
shows that the impression given by a series of lantern slides, projected in
a prearranged order for definite times, is definitely cinema. Such series are
often employed in practice.

The special case of a visual impression remaining unchanged for a
definite time obscures a fundamental property of the film unit. That is,
film material must have a definite direction in time, its beginning and end

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" Greeting the Future," by Yutkevitch and Ermler. Vodka when plans go ivrong.
" Salut d Vavenir " de Yutkevitch et Ermler. La vodka, quand les plans echouent !

cannot be interchanged without changing" it completelv. In every piece of
film material hangs an arrow, plainly marked " One Way Traffic Only."
Even an abstract film projected backwards is not the same as the one seen
when the celluloid is run forwards, though the celluloid is the same in
each case. That theorists should have overlooked this property is astound-
ing, and has been disastrous. No theory of motion composition to date
makes any distinction between a small circle growing larger and a large
circle growing smaller, or to go further, between a house falling down and
a house coming together again.

It is because of this and other fatal flaws in current theory that I have
been rather pedantic and obvious. Although nowadays no one would state
that the film is derived from still pictures, the assumption is implicit in
much of what has been written on film theory. The emphasis is explicitly
laid on motion as fundamental. Even then, though nearer the truth,
theory is inaccurate, for it omits the directional property. In part the cur-
sory treatment of fundamental properties is due to the natural desire to get

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on with the apparently more practical problem of construction, but the real
root of the trouble lies in the shadowing of the camera on the imagination.

Film material must be visual and acoustic, but in the first analysis both
properties need not be considered in combination. Although the complex
optical-acoustic image is more than the sum of sound and sight impressions,
it is legitimate to separate the two when considering them as raw material. It
is not legitimate to separate them completely when considering the film as
a whole, for even a completely silent part of the film has an acoustic signifi-
cance due to the presence of sound images in other parts of the film.
Cessation of sound is not the same as absence of sound. Similarly, absence
of a visual image is not possible in a film, for a dark screen is essentially
visual, and the combination of this with sound is fundamentally different
from a radio play, though both depend on the ears only at the instant
concerned.

Visual film material must possess spatial extension, duration, and a
definite direction in time. However simple the piece of material may be it
must possess these properties in combination. Even a point of light has
spatial extension in the sense that it must have position in something, and
the shortest scene must have some duration. The film is therefore built of
events, not of pictures or of motions. This includes stereoscopic and colour
events, either " natural " or " contrapuntal."*

The acoustic material possesses similar formal properties. The
necessity for duration is obvious, there can be no such thing as an instan-
taneous sound. The directional property is well demonstrated by playing
a gramophone record backwards. There is no spatial extension in sound,
but what is known as " quality " has structural properties similar to those
of space images, the content being entirely different. The acoustic material
therefore possesses the properties of an event, and the bricks of the film
are visual and acoustic events.

An interesting point arises out of this analysis of the sound units.
From its physical nature the sound event requires a certain time to have
any existence, the time required for the ear to receive a train of pressure
waves. The time required for the apprehension of a visual event is much
shorter. Also, owing to the influence of Western ideas of music, it is the
interrelation of acoustic events that carry significances to the audience, not
the events themselves, event when the events are no dealing with speech.
If the sound is too tightly tied to the screen material the visual action will
be forced to marktime. The acoustic events are better if selected than if
completely representational, a point that seems to have been discovered
empirically.

Recognition of the visual event as the fundamental film unit alters con-
ceptions of motion composition in other ways besides those already noticed.
The pictorial composition of even a still shot must differ from that of a

* Uniform tinting and hand-painted blushes in comedies are, so far, the only examples
of contrapuntal colour.

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framed picture. The framed picture is bounded by its frame in space only,,
not in time, nor is it in general painted with consideration for its relations,
to adjacent pictures on the wall. The still shot is bounded both by the
screen opening, which is an essential part of the image, and by the clock,,
and it is composed in relation to all the other shots, past and future, that
occur in the film. The balancing of light and shade, necessary in a picture

" Greeting the Future." By Yutkevitch and Ermler. Triumph in the Leningrad factory when the

shock-brigade complete the engine.

" Salut a I'avenir," film de Yutkevitch et Ermler. Scene de triomphe a. I'usine de Leningrad,
lorsque la brigade de choc complete les machines.

to be hung on the wall, may be very undesirable in a still shot. Balancing,
if required, must be in time as well as space. This again is common practi-
cal knowledge.

Similar considerations apply to shots in general. Without a knowledge
of the context it is meaningless to refer to such motions as movements across
the screen, heavy masses moving in one direction and light masses in
another, and so on, as independent variables for manipulation. The film

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is not concerned with motions as such, but with events. Xo motions that
are not periodic in space and time can exist on the screen indefinitely. Apart
from periodic motion, nothing can move without changing other properties
of the visual impression. It must start somewhere, and stop somewhere,
sometime. The ideas of duration and direction upset the usual canons of
motion eomposition, which apply only to such motions as can be framed
and hung on the wall, or, what is the same thing, can be formed by joining
the ends of the film together and running it through the projector continu-
ously.

The scope of the film is all visual and acoustic experience, actual and
possible. If there is any experience which cannot be expressed in these
terms the film cannot deal with it. Visual experience is formed from events
that occupy space,* last a definite time, and have a beginning and end that
■cannot be interchanged. These alone are the criteria to be satisfied by the
visual material, the method bv which it is obtained is irrelevant, though
governing the way in which the material is used.

Visual events are not confined to the representational or visual aspect
of natural events. In one sense all visual events are representational, for
anything that can be seen must look like what it looks like, optically. Never-
theless, everything does not look like what it means, nor, in extreme cases,
is its appearance recognised before its significance. A photograph of a
man, the rough outline of a man as drawn by a child, and the group of
letters " man," are all visual, but are not all representational. The words
on this page do not look like what thev mean, yet their meaning has been
recognised, although there has been no conscious recognition of their shape.
Probably the reader lias accepted the shapes as sound and, if a suitable
instrument were fitted to his throat, he would be found to be repeating
the words muscularlv as he read. Originally the printed shapes were
.symbols for particular sounds, and only by actual vocalization could the
meaning be arrived at. Familiaritv has substituted recognition for vocaliza-
tion, even the recognition being unconscious. Mental, and sometimes
muscular, vocalization occurs as a sort of aura to reading, but this is merely
a by product. Many symbols are purely visual. Such, for instance, are
the red triangle meaning Danger, the cross and the crescent, stars and
stripes, the Geneva cross, chemical and mathematical symbols, the swastika
.and the three arrows, and so on.+ Here is an almost untapped source of
material.

From the representational image to the printed word is a jump from
visual to intellectual significance. It is possible to move in the opposite

* That is, visual space, which has a purely angular metric. There is a large variety
ol " spaces," built up from visual and muscular experience, culminating in the curious
but no more artificial spaces of the mathematicians. The ordinary man uses at least
three different conceptions of space in his daily life.

t Some of these symbols are genuinely universal, not merely arbitrary. Viz., letter
signed W. W. L. on " Undeciphered Scripts " in NATURE, 12th' November, 1932, p. 741,
and Plate I in " Handbook of Celtic Ornament." Mearne.

(Talbot Press, Dublin).

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149

direction from the man's photograph, through the childish drawing of the
essentials of his appearance, to the abstract pattern rhythm. Or rather,
through the visual events that parallel these pictorial analogies. Ruttman,
in the original silent version of Berlin, opened the film with the visual
essence of the action of the linkages on a locomotive, the pictorial version
following. For some unknown reason the animated cartoons have passed
over this variation for the more usual technique, which tends more to the
intellectual end of the scale if ever it departs from the representational (e.g.
the use of punctuation marks bv the late Felix the Cat and sometimes by
Krazy Kat).

Roughly, film material embraces the complete range from visual events
with diffused intellectual and sharp visual significance, to events with sharp
intellectual and diffused visual significance. The ultimate significance in the
film depends on the context and treatment. Alhough all the material is in
a sense symbolic,* the range may be tabulated thus : —

JTisual Significance .
Abstract

Svmbolic (Visual Analogv)
Representational

Svmbolic (Intellectual Analogv)
Typographic (Xon-verbal)
Typographic (Verbal)

Intellectual Significance .

The proper classification of any particular piece of film material depends
on the mentality of the audience for whom it is intended. To an English
audience a shot of Chinese lettering would be either purelv decorative, when
it would be placed in the abstract group, or representational, i.e. it would
be a shot of Chinese lettering as such. To a Chinese the material would
have a meaning over and above its appearance.

Similar considerations apply to the acoustic material. The sounds of
speech can be used to give the general impression of speech, or to give the
meaning of the words spoken. An example of the first use was given in
City Lights, where a formal speech was represented bv a suitablv inflected
series of distorted speech sounds, while the visual equivalent is the use of
imitation print on books and newspapers in drawings. It is used much
better, even if accidentally, in the case of a foreign film employing an un-
familiar language. Abstract sound includes music as a special case, but
has a far wider range. In general the acoustic event is more plastic than
the visual, for it can be made to take on any kind of emotional or intellectual
significance bv constructing relations between it and the rest of the film
events.

* " The human mind is functioning symbolically when some components of its
experience elicit consciousness, beliefs, emotions, and usages respecting other components
of its experience."

A. X. Whitehead. " Symbolism." p. 9.

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The reader will have noticed that the table given above has no place
for a very important type of film material. This is " news-reel " events.
The omission is due to the fact that the table assumes the visual significance
to sharpen, as the intellectual significance diffuses. For most material this
is true, but it is a unique property of the camera and microphone that they
can obtain material which is not subject to this restriction, provided that the
audience know that the camera or microphone has been used. In some
respects the property of " reality " corresponds to the use of slow motion,
in that it is used in relation to material existing outside the screen, and is
meaningless if this material does not exist. As the question is of interest
and importance, and does not directly concern construction, it will be
treated in outline here.

There is, to an audience familiar with the camera, a considerable differ-
ence between a shot of a man being run over by a car, and a shot of the
reconstructed event with actors. Both events are, of course, natural events,
or they would not have occurred, but the term " natural event " will be
limited to an event not specially arranged for the camera. For these natural
events, and in general for any film constructed on the principles of Dsiga
Vertoff's " Kino-Eye," the camera can justly claim to be indispensable.
For anything else the camera is irrelevant, for, leaving on one side the

Helen Hayes in Paramount' s
" FareiveR to Arms!" From the
novel by Ernest Hemingioay .

Helen Hayes dans un film Para-
momit apres V oeuvre de Ernest
Hemingway, "Farewell to Arms."

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151

commercial point of view, it can be seen that all factitious events not of the
news-reel genus could be formed just as well from drawings as from
elaborately constructed events with solid objects. Better, in fact, for any
and every type of visual event can be formed from drawings, whilst only a
limited amount of constructive manipulation is possible with the camera.

The way in which " real photographs " are identified with the original
event is rather surprising, considering the symbolic nature of the photo-
graphic image. The reproduced event has an exact one-to-one correspond-
ence with the shape, motion, and direction of the event, as seen from one
particular view point. Apart from this the image will occupy an area about
one fiftieth of that covered bv the eyes, even when they are fixed. The con-
trast of the image depends on the projector, the illumination of the room,
and the albedo of the screen, but it is rarely more than sixty to one as
opposed to the some thousands to one existing in nature. Furthermore the
action is limited in time as well as by the screen opening. In short, " real "
material is inevitably manipulated by the very process of obtaining it. The
Kino-Eye theory can never be completely realized in practice.

In spite of the remoteness of the connection between events and their
photographic counterparts, it is safe to assume that no audience would
flock to see a film of Marlene Dietrich made from drawings of that lady,
however accurate the drawings might be. Large scale events of known
•expense and danger carry far more weight on the screen, if photographic,
than similar scenes in, Silly Symphonies, although in every visual respect
they are the same.

This completes the survey of film material and its fundamental
properties. To summarize, visual film material must possess duration,
spatial extension, and direction in time; it must therefore be an event.
Acoustic events have a similar formal structure. Provided these conditions
are satisfied by the material there is no a priori objection to its use in the
film. Thus there is a vast field of material as yet unexplored. Two types
of material of great practical importance, but as yet untried, are non-verbal
tvpography, and non-perspective representation. Also, the combination
of the visual qualities of different experiences, as in the well-known posters
in which a handkerchief is simultaneously a man playing football and a
handkerchief.

By the nature of things the material possesses visual intellectual, and
■emotional content not touched by this analysis, but any relations constructed
between these qualities must necessarily be fastened to a scaffolding of the
formal qualities we have discussed. The problem of analysing, classifying,
and creating the hierarchy of relation structures (" metrics ") that result
from the ordering of film material is the second problem of film theory, and
film practice.

Robert A. Fairthorne.

November, 1932.

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A design for a film set by Edward Carrick and a photo of how the set
appeared in the film after the carpenters, the cameramen and the costumiers
had made their little changes. The camera position had made an effective
set merely ordinary, the lighting is flat and has none of the character shown
in the sketch, while the dresses give importance to the wrong characters.

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The Garden Fantastique _of the Fine Arts Theatre, Boston. Decorations
by Erica Karawina. Photo : Herbert F. Lang.

Le jardin fantastique da Theatre des Beaux-Arts de Boston. Decoration d'Erica
Karauina. Photos : Herbert F. Lang.

SOMETHING NEW IN THE MOTION
PICTURE THEATRE

What's in a name? How many times we hear that question and how
often the answer is, " Oh nothing, just sounds well." This is particularly
true of the jewels bestowed on motion picture houses — the Metropolitan, the
Paramount, the Cameo. They are high sounding but there is no idea behind
them. Such is not the case with Boston's Fine Arts Theatre, however, for
it is not only just what the name implies, but it does everything to magnify
this ... it ties up the Fine Arts in no spasmodic fashion but day after day
in unusual ways that even go so far as to attract world wide attention. It
.started first of all as a Theatre Intime showing the very best of the foreign

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155

films such as A Nous La Liberte, Shiraz, Storm over Asia, Zwei Herzen and
The Road to Life to mention but five. Its field has enlarged, however, and
each unusual innovation seems to follow the last in logical sequence.

On the walls leading to the lounge are hung each fortnight the paint-
ings, lithographs or photographs of some worthy artist. These may be the
work of a young person who shows decided promise or the canvasses of such
a one as Ernst DeNagy, court painter to the Emperor of Hungary. What-
ever is hung, Mr. Kraska, the theatre's manager, is the sole judge. His
selection of exhibitions has always been highly endorsed as worth-while
from one view point or another. He has made his little gallerv not the place
of " cranks " but rather one which receives the serious attention of notable
critics.

After the gallery came a further " tie-ing " up of the arts, with the
Monday Night Salons which add a pleasant interlude in the programme
and which intensify the feeling of intimacy. At these Salons there have
appeared many famous artists : Hans Weiner, Vlasta Maslova, the only one
whom Pavlova authorized to dance her Swan. Einur Hanson, who attracted
the attention of Dr. Koussevitzky with his European concerts, has played the
violin on several memorable occasions since he joined the Boston Symphony
Orchestra. And, while the stage of the Fine Arts is not a try-out place for
amateurs, Manager Kraska never overlooks those who show promise.

The latest innovation which Mr. Kraska has but recentlv drawn from
his bottomless bag of things unique is the language classes. This has
brought the little theatre more than ever under the international eye for it is
the only one in the world to conduct such classes.

There were plenty of reasons which seemed to point the way to such
a development but it remained for a plan to be evolved which should heighten
the interest in the films, make the classes pleasant and keep the entire scheme
consistent with other regular offerings at the theatre. It might have daunted
another but . . . already several successful classes have been held and attend-
ance is fast reaching those fabulous " dizzy heights." The purpose is, of
course, to acquaint the non-speaking element, and to refresh the memories
of those who have studied, with the most common phrases and idioms of the
language as spoken by natives. The purpose, too, is to give one that feel-
ing of satisfaction attendant on pronouncing accuratelv and knowing collo-
quial meanings of the most frequent expressions.

The programme, as it has been put into use every Thursday evening, is
this : at seven o'clock, for one half hour before the showing of the foreign
presentation, an instructor from the Berlitz School of Languages, a native
of the particular countrv which is represented in the feature film, instructs
the audience in a friendly fashion, in the most common idioms and words
used in the film to follow. For another half hour after the picture this same
teacher answers questions which have been written in the language and
handed to him and he carries on a sprightly conversation with the now eager
audience. This putting of one's newly acquired accent into immediate use

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George Kraska and Erica Karazcina, art designer, in the Garden Fantasque of
the Boston Fine Arts Theatre. Photo : Herbert F. Lang.

George Kraska et Erica Karazvina , dessinateurs d'art, dans le jardin fantastiaue du
Theatre des Beaux- Arts de Boston. Photos : Herbert F. Lang.

helps to lessen the feeling- of gaucherie, polishes off the accent and makes it a
thing of ease and delight rather than a stammering, rustv mumbling. The
instructor has, by the war, seen the film several times before Thursday to
insure a perfect tie-up. It might almost to said that he works in the same
manner in which an orchestra leader synchronizes his music with the feature.

Although Kraska studied careful lv all the statistics of attendance,
although he has watched the increased interest shown in foreign films, he
tells an incident which is in a large way responsible for the germ of the
idea which has made these classes come into successful being. During the
playing of Zwei Herzcn he noticed one woman who attended every perfor-
mance. She never failed to be at the box office at opening time and stayed
until closing, going out for a lunch and paying a second admission on her
return. Mr. Kraska was interested enough to ask her the reason for her
constant attendance and was told that she, an American, could find no better
way to keep up her German. She was in no way eccentric as one might
expect from the unusual nature of the incident. At the close of the picture's
run, this assiduous student gave a cop}- of the complete plav to Mr. Kraska.
She had written it out just from listening. With such positive proof of the
derivation of knowledge, there was nothing for the manager to do but to
work out a plan that would give benefit to manv others seeking similar
linguistic prowess without spending as much time or monev either for that
matter for these classes are all included under one admission price !

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Almost concurrent with the Professor's first bow on the Fine Arts' stage
came the christening of Le Jardin Fantastique, a garden which does a great
many things from utilizing an ugly unused architectural area on the roof to
providing a pleasant retreat, a starlight promenade or a delightful spot in
which to sip after dinner coffee or tea served in the English manner at four.
It also enjoys the distinction of being the only one of its kind with the
possible exception of one in Switzerland.

One might think with so many unusual features to his credit, Mr. Kraska
would be content to sit in the back of the theatre and watch the crowds
file in. Not so, however, for rife in his busy brain is a scheme which will
result in the discovery of American amateur photographers who may have
the latent talent to produce the equals of Maedchen in Uniform or the Isle of
Paradise both completed as amateur productions.

Emerson's well-known truism has been applied to many commodities.
The phrases might here be turned to apply to the little movie house on a
back street which is fast having a beaten track worn to its door !

Frances Blake.

Anna and Elizabeth," Collective film made for Terra.
" Anna et Elizabeth," film-collectif de Terra.

' Anna and Elizabeth.

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159

Dorothea Wieck and Hertha Thiele in " Anna and Elizabeth."

WHY WAR? EINSTEIN AND FREUD*
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF
INTELLECTUAL CO-OPERATION

This volume contains a letter from Einstein to Freud, and Freud's reply
to it. The circumstances under which this exchange of views took place is
best described in Professor Einstein's own words. He writes: — " Dear
Professor Freud — The proposal of the League of Nations and its Inter-
national Institute of Intellectual Co-operation at Paris that I should invite
a person, to be chosen by myself, to a frank exchange of views on any
problem that I might select affords me a very welcome opportunity of con-
ferring with you upon a question which, as things now are, seems the most
insistent of all the problems civilisation has to face. This is the problem :
Is there any way of delivering mankind from the menace of war?".

* It may be worth recording that on the occasion of Freud's 75th birthday, Walter
Ruttman wrote : — " Man darf ohne Ubertreibung sagen : Freud ist der Vater der filmis-
chen Uberblendung."

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Most people will agree that Professor Einstein is to be unreservedly con-
gratulated on his choice both of subject and object. His letter, in which he
modestly explains that he " can do little more than seek to clarify the
question at issue," says much for his own insight and his capacity to
appreciate at its true value Freud's work.

Freud's reply runs true to form. That is to say, it possesses the qualities
of vigorous and concise (not to say condensed) statement, depth of thought,
and courageous pessimism, with which we are familiar from his writings.
There is little or nothing essential here which is not expressed or implied in
previous work, but that does not detract from the interest afforded by a
more concentrated expression of Freud's views on the topic of war at the
present time.

The deepest and strongest obstacle to peace lies in the aggressive or
destructive instinct in the individual, " which is seldom given the attention
that its importance warrants." How important it is may be surmised from
statements such as that of Ernest Jones to the effect that it is difficult to
over-estimate the quantity of sadism present in infants or that of M. Klein
that " in children of every age it is very hard even for deep analysis to
mitigate the severity of the super-ego." The instinct of destruction must
find some outlet, and it has alternative paths open to it. It may be directed
to the external world, or it can turn inward on the self. When the latter
happens too extensively " it is no trivial matter, rather a positively morbid
state of things ; whereas the diversion of the destructive impulse towards
the external world must have beneficial effects." We might even say that
the turning inward of sadism is so little a trivial matter that, if the factor of
dread of the form future wars will take helps (as Freud thinks it may) to put
an end to war in the near future, we may vet be forced to regret the perfection
of the methods of destruction as depriving us of so useful a form of relief
from internal tension.

Making for peace we have the " erotic " instincts (in the wide sense
in which Freud uses the term) and, from another angle, the psychic
changes which accompany the cultural development of mankind (civilisation).

Possibly the publication of this book is the most important achievement
of the League to date. The translation (by Stuart Gilbert) approaches per-
fection. But why the limited edition, and why 6 shillings? Must we still
be secretive about the secrets of the soul ?

H. A. M.

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" Anna and Elizabeth." Hertha Thiele and Dorothea Wieck.

TEACHING MUSIC BY THE
ABSTRACT FILM

Victorian ancestors, besides having the joys of peep-show movies, also
had the Eidophone to beguile Victorian evenings.

This " scientific " toy consisted of a membrane stretched across the
top of a wooden cup to the base of which a speaking tube was joined.
Having sprinkled sand onto the membrane, the operator would speak or
sing some clearly enunciated word or note into the tube. Vibrations of air
inside the wooden cup set the membrane into motion, while the sand formed
different patterns.

Different membranes (paper, parchment, fine silk, tin or india-rubber)
would produce different patterns for the same spoken word or note. Lyco-
podium or coloured fluid was sometimes substituted for the sand with'
sharply varying results. Again, altering the size of the membrane-disc or
the strength and colour of the voice, changed the outline of the design caused

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by the note. But, given pre-determined conditions, fundamental patterns
could definitely be relied upon to appear.

Of course, the principle of this toy dates back to Chladni's Figures of
1785 : Chladni drew the bow of a violin across edges of plates covered with
sand. Moreover, Professor Sedley Taylor, at some later date, made similar
experiments with the crispations of a soap film set in vibration by vocal
sounds. However, the popularity of the Eidophone depended on the fact
that the fundamental forms produced could easilv be identified as ferns,
trees, flowers, and such like.

The amazing relationship between sound and elementary forms in
natural structure is suggestive of important and provocative ideas. For the
purpose of this short article, it is possible to stress only one aspect — educa-
tional values of moving shapes, of the fundamental Eidophone-order, com-
bined with music.

Obviously, the sound film is the medium for presenting shifting shapes
synchronised with music. To begin with, children are excited by the mere
thought of " film." Because films are not naturally linked with lessons,
children are receptive to instruction on what may, in reality, be but a black-
board of moving lines.

Now, all music teachers know the extreme difficulty of making children
comprehend the architecture of music. Phrasing with intelligence, time,
accent — the pupil generally is but a protective mimic as far as these matters
are concerned. The student repeats what the professor has shown him ; he
does not consciously struggle to attain an appreciated pattern.

But, the abstract film (on the Eidophone lines) could demonstrate.

The child could be shown Eidophonic shapes with music. He would
begin to understand music as shape, begin to think of music (as we have
thought of film) a building made in time.

Animated cartoons could teach the young the power and vitalitv of
rhythm. Superimposition could be skilfully employed to demonstrate con-
flict of theme with theme, the machinery of counterpoint. And so on.

Some will argue that this system would be too costly. Apart from the
fact that the brave might recover production expenses from schools and
musical academies, the regular cinema might add margin of profit. For
public exhibition, it would not be necessary to label such pictures " educa-
tion " but " orchestral interlude." Since the days of the talkies, the small
halls have dismissed their orchestras ; audiences, in such theatres, might be
content, for a few minutes, to concentrate eighty per cent, of their attention
on good music.

As final thought, does not the working out of this sound with this image
(this foot here, this sound here) suggest the next development of the talkie
medium ?

OSWELL BLAKESTON.

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163

" Anna and Elizabeth."

THE MAKING OF THE RUSSIAN " STAR "

Most film stars have been made by the genius of a Lubitsch or a Stern-
berg, men capable of moulding an entirely new personality onto people
whose potentialities for the field of stardom attracts their attention. Thus
the star is so often the creation of a superimposed imagination, while they
yet preserve, or cultivate a facade of being a concrete and original personality.

The American star, with few exceptions, is visualized in the terms of
being an investment which in course of time will double and treble the
initial outlay spent in creating this synthetic entity — this new face, this un-
familiar figure and these hitherto unsuspected charms. The concentrated
energy and thought which may have been spent on a voung woman in pre-
paring her for her comet like appearance in the Hollywood sky is under-
taken with an eye to a fair run of popularity, and the greater her success,

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the greater the power that comes into her hands. In fact she bids to become
almost an equal with the discoverer of her attractions, and even the most
high handed American regisseur is forced to share his laurels with his stars.

This is true to a lesser degree of the European regisseurs, the Langs
and the Rene Clair's; to all but the Russian regisseurs to whom the actor
is a part, a rather lesser part, of the collective process of picture making.

The Russian film actor's position, even if he would be a star in any other
country, is only of the same importance as the camera and the sound operator.
If it be reckoned in eclair he is relatively hardlv more than a small part actor
in Hollywood. He is, with few exceptions, a vessel into which the regisseur
pours his conception and ruthlessly eliminates all but his own. He is
an instrument to be played upon by the imagination of the master; to be
moulded into a new entity who, unlike the European film star, mav have
passed again into obscurity before the film is ever shown. He is not seen
in the terms of an investment, only as a means of interpretation, thus there
is no one that can be called a star in the Soviet cinema.

Few Russian films have set the actor in a dominant position ; one simply
quotes the name of the regisseur and probablv does not remember the actor's
name. Mustapha in Ekk's Road to Life was obviouslv a remarkable actor,
but to-day not a single regisseur in Moscow needs him for a picture. He
will probably find his way into another profession.

Of all the new Russian films, onlv two, Macherat's Jobs and Men and
Vstrechny by Ermler and Utkevitch, both films having a more theatre than
film qualitv, are pictures in which the actor is a definite personal entitv giving
an individual performance and not an effect created almost entirely by the
imagination of the regisseur through montage.

Of all the regisseurs who use the actor as interpreter of their meaning,
Pudovkin, I think, is the most thorough. He sees qualities in actors which
other regisseurs miss; he will see a simple peasant in an actress who is cast
bv all other regisseurs for women of the world.

It is commonly believed that he never uses professional actors. That is
not so ; for he will use any human being if he finds in them the qualities
he wants and that thev are receptive to his meaning. He seldom works with
theatre actors, for he finds that their theatre technique interferes, and cannot
help imposing itself upon his conception of reality with an exaggeration of
emphasis.

When Pudovkin is preparing a picture he has five assistants who search
for suitable types of people. Anywhere and everywhere they look for this
human material which he will study for weeks before shooting, talking to for
hours and trying to understand their psychology.

" You can't work with someone you don't know," he says. He will then
shoot them in a hundred different positions for one small episode.

With this human material, Pudovkin becomes a battery of energy, pour-
ing forth his will, meaning and imagination in a molten stream of words
.and gestures. He is transformed from a shv and quiet man into a seething

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105

" Greeting the Future." By Yutkevitch and Ermler. Triumph in the Leningrad factory when the

shock-brigade complete the engine.

" Salut a Vavenir" film de Yutkevitch et Ermler. Scene de triomphe d Vusine de Leningrad,
lorsque la brigade de choc complete les machines.

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volcano, resorting, if necessary, to a tyranny of a physical nature. So
passionately anxious is he to find reality in each moment of his work, and
even in his life, that he will go to any extreme. His almost biological method
of work is probably a hangover from his days of being a chemical student
who could never stop experimenting.

Wjien he, I think it was 1925, separated his work from Kuleshov, with
whom for three years he had studied and developed a cinematic principle
on paper and without a camera in a disused barn, (both of them living on the
edge of starvation and thinking of spring when neither of them possessed
an overcoat in the Moscow winter) he made a semi-scientific film Mechanics
of the Brain based on Pavlov's theory of reflex. He went to a maternity
hospital and asked if any woman would be willing for him to film her face
during the confinement. One was only too pleased, and when he arrived,
he found her with hair done to perfection and face made up, far more
interested in becoming a film star than a mother.

I have not seen the result, but I believe that the effects Pudovkin achieved
were quite extraordinary.

In his last silent picture, The Simple Story which will soon be shown in
England, Pudovkin created most of the acting effects — the young son's
awakening, which is one of the most beautiful moments Pudovkin has
achieved, and the smiling father are the result of montage. Two other
scenes; the boy stretching and smiling in the sun, and the hysterical scenes
of Masha, the Red Army Commander's wife are the result of physical
tyranny. Neither of the actors are professional.

Pudovkin asked the boy to bend and touch his toes and remain in that
position for over ten minutes; in the meantime the camera was set.

" You can stretch," cried Pudovkin. The boy did it luxuriously and
full of pleasure. " Shoot," shouted the regisseur, and they shot.

" That's good," said Pudovkin pleased, the boy smiled and at that
moment the next shot was taken.

Masha, Pve forgotten her name, but she was discovered by one of the
assistants, who has a quality of simplicity and sincerity and a beauty which
is quite wonderful, was asked before the shooting of the hysterical scenes, on
the recovery of her husband from a death like coma, not to eat for two days,
and not to sleep the night before the shooting. One of the assistants kept
vigilant guard !

On the morning of the shooting Pudovkin talked to her on every con-
ceivable subject for hours until she burst into a frenzy of weeping and the
shooting then began.

" Laugh," he cried, " Laugh, laugh !" and she burst into hysterical
laughter.

I think the end justifies the means for even the means are stimulating
to the imagination when it is as the dictator of so vital a regisseur striving
to translate the active titanic dreams into reality.

Marie Seton.

THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM IN
THE UNITED STATES

A SURVEY

Europe, a heterogenous state, found itself more sharply divided in 1928
than in any year since the end of the war. A new barrier of language had
arisen between the dozen countries as a result of the invention of the talking
film in America. The silent film, with its universally understood play of
pantomime (and captions which could be translated into any language) was
doomed to cinematic limbo before the onslaught of the talking film.

Tobis-Klangfilm Company, the first great sound system developed in
Germany, produced Bride 68 with Conrad Veidt in two languages — German
and English. Though containing a bare 10 per cent of dialogue, this was
one of the very first attempts at the bi-lingual film, which was later to expand
into the tri-lingual and even multi-lingual film. The first group of English
versions of German language films were made primarily for English speak-
ing countries other than America, since even in the silent days America
was never very receptive to the German film and when allocating their
expected revenue from various countries throughout the world, the German
film makers counted America out — anything possibly emanating from that
country in the way of revenue from their product was considered " some-
thing extra."

Since then, of course, Ufa* and other of the great German producting
companies, have counted America " in " and have even gone so far as
to produce spectacles with an eye towards possible return from the lucrative
American box-office. Liebeswalzer, The White Devil, Drei von der Tank-
stelle, Ein Burschenlied Aus Hcidleberg, The Blue Angel, and the Con-
gress Dances are cases in point. Only one of these has been a financial
success as these things are measured by American box-office standards —
The Blue Angel — and that was due principally to the presence of the exotic
Marlene Dietrich (whom Paramount had already groomed and introduced
as a star in Morocco) and in a lesser, though not unimportant degree to the
direction of the American-assimilated Josef von Sternberg, who knew of the
enormous reserve of sex appeal dormant in the hitherto angelic Dietrich-]-
with which he pervaded his film, and to the masterly supervision of Erich

* Ufa recently announced a large production-schedule of tri-lingual super films, inclu-
ding American versions, for which it secured a small circuit of theatres in America. These
small theatres, however, did not turn out to be financial successes, and were gradually
given up. Their failure was partly responsible for the dissolution of the Ufa offices in
America.

t Vide the early Dietrich films produced in Germany in the silent era, " I Kiss Your
Hand, Madame/' and Die Fran Nach Der Maun Sick Sehnt, released in America as
Three Loves.

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Pommer, whose stamp had previously marked a dozen German screen
masterpieces.*

The fact also, that Paramount took this film under its wing and lavished
all its tricks of exploitation upon it, gave The Blue Angel an advantage
which equally meritorious German language films exhibited in America
since then were denied. (Among the notable German language films that
did not "' take " at the American box-office, were Die Drei von der Tank-
stelle, Liebeswalzer, Die Dreigroschenoper, The Congress Dances, and
Die Floetenkonzert von Sans Souci.) Though the version of The Blue Angel
shown in America was an English one, the recording was so uneven in
quality, parts of it being downright incomprehensible, that what with a
little German thrown in here and there for atmosphere, we do not have
to discount very much the presence of its English dialogue as responsible
in a great degree for its success.

The comparative success of The Blue Angel was in part instrumental
in Ufa's establishing an outlet for its own product in America. It was in-
tended that the Cosmopolitan Theatre in New York be the show-window of
the more spectacular of the Ufa product, especially those made with an
eye towards the American market, besides a means of securing whatever
revenue they could from a mass of various kinds of short films (educational,
musical, scientific, etc.) which was being produced in an unending quantity
at the Neubabelsberg studios near Berlin. But the German popula-
tion of New York could not be lured by the temptation of seeing their own
home-grown product in sufficient numbers to warrant continuing the pro-
ject, and the closing down of the Cosmopolitan Theatre marked the end of
Ufa's theatrical activities in America. j- Soon after Ufa dissolved its New
York exchange and turned over its product for release in America to Leo
Brecher, at present operating The Little Carnegie Playhouse in New York,
which has been one of the major show-windows for German and French
product in New York.

Tobis, the one other great sound producing company in Germany,
fared little better. Their attempt to operate the Yanderbilt Theatre in
New York as a first-run house in America for its major product, failed dis-
mally, with possibly two box-office successes out of their entire season —
Karamaaov and Die Grosse Sehnsucht .

However, from the above resume, it might be deduced that the German
language film has not proved an entire success in America. Perhaps the
reason for mentioning the conspicuous failures of certain notable pictures,
and producing companies, first, is that in these failures lies a more general
summing up of the condition of the foreign language film in the United
States, than in the sporadic successes (aside from the previously mentioned

* Caligari, The Nibelungen, Variety, The Last Laugh, Homecoming, Faust, Metro-
polis, etc.

t Ufa's little theatre in Newark had already decided to call it quits, while their
Cincinnati theatre, having contracted for a Ufa franchise, continued to operate, though
without any official connections with that film company.

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169

Mae West in Paramount' s ' ' She Done Him Wrong !

Blue Angel, whose American sponsorship did so much to " put it over ")
which were few and far between.

For there were successes — and while they lasted the hopes of the
German film makers and the little theatre exhibitors, ran high !

Curiously enough, it was neither the ereat L'fa nor Tobis units which

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were able to turn out a film that struck the American (and German-American)
fancy. Superfilm AG. in Berlin sent over a little Viennese screen operetta,
the first of its kind to be shown in America.* Zwei Herzen Im Dreiviertel
Takt ran for fifty weeks at the little Europa Theatre in New York, where
it established an all-time record for American as well as foreign talking
pictures, m in the United States.

The press was no less enthusiastic than the public which flocked to the
tiny theatre for almost a year to see and hear the film which " brought back
the Viennese waltz." (The American critics even went so far to sav that
it surpassed anything America had done in the field of the musical film
or screen operetta, " triumphing easily over the much-vaunted Monte
Carlo " — John S. Cohen, Jr., New York Sun.)

* An earlier German musical film, Dich Hab'Ich Geliebt, had played to a record run
of six weeks at the Belmont Theatre in New York, where it was most enthusiastically
received. This film, it may be said, paved the way, not only for the German language
film in America, but also for the foreign language film in general.

Special photograph {not appearing in the film) of Mae West, star of " She Done Him Wrong ! "

Photo : Paramount .

Photo Speciale (pas dans le film) de Mae West, vedette de " She Done Him Wrong ! " Photo :

Paramount .

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J 7 L

Mae West !

While American films came and went, and the deluge of Viennese
operettas descended on Manhatten, Zwei Herzen Im Dreiviertel Taki con-
tinued its sprightly three-four time to fame and fortune. On the strength
of its enormous success, Geza von Bolvary, its director has been offered a
contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer to come to Hollywood. It is an interest-
ing commentary on the influence of the German language film in these
manifestations that Hollywood has acknowledged the German supremacy
and has imported such European directors as Luis Trenker, Dr. Arnold
Fanck, "Wilhelm Dieterle ; such stars as Marlene Dietrich, Charlotte Susa,
Lil Dagover, Lillian Harvey, Anna Sten, Sari Maritza, Tala Birell, Gwili
Andre and a host of others. Even Karl Freund, Ufa's ace cameraman, was
seduced into coming to Hollywood and is now engaged on his first
directorial work, Imhotep.

Among those who have been offered contracts to come to America, are
Fritz Kortner, the actor, G. W. Pabst, the director, Erich Pommer and the
aforementioned brilliant young Hungarian director, von Bolvary.

Under the astute direction of Mr. Max Goldberg, director of a chain
of Europa Theatres in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, The

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Europa Theatre in New York followed its' enormously successful run of
Two Hearts with at least four other proportionate successes: Die Lindcn-
wirtin vom Rhein, Sein Liebeslied, Das Lied 1st Aus, and Der Raub Der
Mona Lisa. These films were outstanding successes throughout the entire
country. The first three, released in America by the Associated Cinemas of
America, Inc., and the latter, by RKO Corporation, were all operettas. It
is also significant to note that the remaining German language film successes
in America, were also^ musical films of the operetta type, with but three
or four exceptions. The Merry Wives of Vienna, Die Foersterchristl, Die
I'rivatsekretarin, and Ein Burschenlied Aus Heidelberg were very popular
with both the press and public also. It would seem, then, that Germany's
first important contribution to die sound film was the film-operetta, which
the rich musical background of the German people was so well able to foster.

At least three German dramatic films were pronounced successes here.
Zivei Menschen, Karamacov, and Comrades of 1918 — certainly not many
more. However, by the time this appears, at least three more German
dramatic films will have made their debut in New York — Kamaradschaf t,
Luise Koenigin von Preussen, and Maedchen In Uniform.* All of these
promise to be more than usual successes, especially the first two, which I
have already seen, and for which I can predict a large and enthusiastic
audience in America.

Yet no one can assure the future in America of the German dramatic
film, as witness two recent important box-office failures — The Case of Colonel
Redl and 1914 •. The Last Days Before the War — and the earlier, Die
Andere, and Brand in der Oper — all four decidedly above the average — and
all four failures at the box-office.

The German film in America has ceased to draw because it is a German
film and for the novelty of its imported flavour, as was the case in the first
years of the little cinema movement in America. The German language
film must to-day compete with the native home-grown product — must appeal
to a wider audience, which is an unfair disadvantage it must contend with,
because of the barrier of language. Until the German producers realize
that it is the treatment and theme which must be universal, and that the
language in which the film is recorded, must be of little consequence, thev
cannot hope to expect a real market for their product in the United States.-]-

One of the most recent developments in solving this almost insurmount-
able barrier of language, has been the superimposition of English titles over
important bits of the dialogue on the film, thereby giving the non-German
spectators a fair idea of the story. This procedure has now become wide-
spread, and practically any imported German language film of any conse-
quence, is provided with these " dialogue titles." This method is most
* See Addenda (a).

t The German-made attempts at " dubbing " (post-synchronizing) in English have
not solved the problem, since this process invariably has " slowed-up " the movement in
the film and has given it a stilted and artificial flavor. The White Devii, The Immortal
Vagabond, The Love Waltz, The Last Company, etc., are examples. Even Ufa's original
English version of The Congress Dances lost all of its sprightliness in an alien tongue.

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173

certainly an improvement on the post-synchronizing of alien voices to the
lip-movements of characters in the film, inasmuch as it does not destroy the
film's fluidity, although it is inclined to detract from the film's physical
attractiveness.

However, until the Germans have asked themselves, " Why pursue the
policv of speech, when it is sound that is of primary importance?" and
do something about it, the problem of the German language film in the
United States will still remain a problem.

* * *

FRANCE

It is from France that we have received the first manifestations of
the true sound-film ; that which has gone beyond the barrier of language
(though employing its native tongue in what dialogue was absolutely
necessary to carry the story — this dialogue however, being as indigenous
to the film as the sound itself) and made for the widest possible universal
appeal as the sound-film is so far capable of. It is to Rene Clair, the creator of
Sous Les Toils de Paris, Le Million, and A Nous La Liberie, all of which
have been exhibited in America, that the palm which Chaplin alone has
carried for so long, is to be awarded.

All three of Clair's films have been successful in America, notably Sous
Les Toils de Paris, which ran for about six months in New York, and was
revived several times since. It was also a decided success throughout the
country in a score or so of little cinema theatres where it was exhibited.
Neither Le Million nor A Nous La Liberie approached anywhere near this
popularity with American audiences. This may be attributed to the fact
that the latter were satires and the former a simple romantic story of love
and life in the Montmartre. America has never quite understood nor has been
willing to accept satire of the incisive and penetrating sort with which Clair
pervaded Le Million and A Nous La Liberie* Therefore it is not difficult
to understand why the combination of Clair's very sparing use of dialogue
together with his clever and telling use of music and psychological sound
effects, coupled with a very simple story which could be applied to any
city in the world, struck " home."

Even Clair, however, was a little wary of the effect of a French language
film in other countries, and sought to overcome a last possible barrier in
Le Million, by inserting at various points in the film, the figures of two
comic Englishmen who explained to each other the course of the story. Both
critics and spectators decried this as being flabby and unnecessary, and
Clair did not use this in his subsequent A Nous La Liberie.

Rene Clair's influence on Hollywood has been probably greater than
that of any other European director since Murnau introduced the perambu-
lating camera in The Last Laugh, and Dupont placed his camera at all sorts

* Many will remember Paramount's The Beggar on Horseback as one of the most
delightful of satires, as well as one of the most dismal of box-office failures.

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of striking angles in Variety. It is doubtful whether Rouben Maumoulain's
much-vaunted Love Me Tonight would have been what it was if it were not
for Sous Les Toits de Paris and Le Million. Monta Bell's This Is The
Night owed whatever grace and " originality " of expression it had, also to
Clair.

It was natural then for Hollvwood to cast lon°"in£>' eves at this brilliant

m - O O

Frenchman, with offers made to him to come to America, just as it was
amusing to see a " Rene Clair cult " spring up among the Hollywood
directors, who had been wallowing in a rut of stereotyped film cliches ever
since the advent of the talking film in America.

But Clair has refused to come to Hollywood, feeling that he can work
more freely in his native France. Clair, curiouslv enough, feels that the
cinema is an art, while Hollywood regards it only as something to be
exchanged for money paid down at the box-office.

Clair's refusal to come to Flollywood is significant of the man and his
work, " using comic image, both of sound and of the camera, with precision

" Ecstasy," film by Gustav Machaty. See " Comment and Review.''
"Ecstase," film de Gustav Machaty. Voir " Comment and Review.'

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175

and drvness and deliberate gravity, and reaching all the time towards a
comedy of European spirit expressed in universal terms."*

Very few other French films of any consequence have reached these
shores, and those that have been exhibited have not been conspicuous
successes.

* * *
RUSSIA.

Just as Russia, by which we mean of course, the U.S. S.R. was the
last of the great European countries to contribute to the art of the silent
film, with Potemkin, Ten Days, etc., so was Russia the last of the great
film producing nations to enter the field of the dialogue film.j-

Though Russia since the advent of the sound-film, has turned out a
great many " talkies," fewer than a dozen of any prominence have been
shown in America. Of these, Cossacks of the Don, Sniper, House of
Death, Siberian Patrol, and Diary of a Revolutionist, may be dismissed as
lesser achievements, and not warranting much more recognition than they
received at the hands of the very critical American press and public (which
is twice as critical when viewing a Soviet film).

Golden Mountains and Alone, two of the more ambitious achievements
to be shown here, were curious mixtures of the powerful dynamism of the
silent Soviet film at its peak and the turgid lethargy of the Russian film at
its lowest ebb of emotional excitement. Even superimposed English titles
could not revive the sluggishness of these films for American audiences,
while the die-hard Communists themselves found both lacking in many
respects. Both were inauspiciouslv received.

In dealing with the Russian temperament as far as American audiences
are concerned, there is an additional barrier besides that of an alien
tongue. There is the barrier of a society different from that
of ours, which the Russian film makers make everv effort to stress through
what is politely called by the gentlemen of the press — " propaganda for
the Soviet Union." This prejudice has coloured much of the reaction
towards Soviet sound-films in this country, though of course it is not
responsible entirely for the popular disfavour of most of the Soviet
" talkies," which' has been due to their technical inferiority, their monotony
of routine, and general un-American point of view concerning the " sacred
cows " of American life and manners.

An exception — and the one justification of the Russian sound-film thus
far as we know it in America — is, of course, the enormously popular and

* CINEMA : by C. A. Lejeune (Alexander Maclehose and Co., London).

t " It is one of the movie's little ironies that the most important development in
film-making — the revolutionary work of the Soviet cinema — should have taken place at
the precise moment when the coming of sound made it temporarily invalid ; that the
one theory which might have saved the silent cinema from destruction arrived just as the
silent cinema had drawn its last breath." CINEMA : by C. A. Lejeune (Alexander Macle-
hose and Co., London).

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financially successful Road to Life, that startingly human treatment of the
" wild " children who infested the city streets in Russia in the years follow-
ing the war.

The Road to Life had its American premiere in Hollywood, instead of
New York. The reason for the change in policy as offered by one critic,
was prorJably due to the keen interest that the American movie industry has
manifested in the question as to how Russia would come through with
sound-films.

The Road to Life was the first of the Soviet sound films to be shown in
America. In the two years since then, there has been nothing from Russia
to reach these shores to equal it.

The first public review of The Road to Life at the Filmarte Theatre in
Hollywood, took place before a selected audience, where it was very
favourably received. The audience at the first public showing reacted to
it with loud applause. Experimental Cinema, a Hollywood film publica-
tion, pointed out one of the reasons for its instantaneous success: " The
theme is one that is sympathetic .to an average American audience.
Children and young people have alwavs been in demand on the American
screen, and here is a film that does not treat children and young boys with
the honev and syrup and the repulsive sentimental dishonesty of the so-
called ' children's picture ' manufactured by Hollywood. On the contrary,
the honesty and authenticity of Ekk's film of the ' wild boys ' are manifest
to everyone."

What adverse criticisms were levelled at the film were negligible before
the shower of praise which it was accorded on all sides, and the warm feel-
ing for the Soviet Union that the chief character, Mustapha, created,
bespoke eloquently of the achievement of the director, N. Ekk, in reaching
another milestone in the development of the foreign language film as a
medium of universal expression, understanding, and sympathy. This
goes a step beyond Rene Clair, who after all only broke down technical
barriers relating to the mechanics of language. The director of The Road
to Life, whose achievement in winning the enthusiastic approval of even
such reactionary organisations as The American Federation of Women's
Clubs, through the effectiveness and honesty of his " propaganda," has
brought the foreign language film to its first really important stage of
development as a social force.

ADDENDA
(a)

Since the above was written, little has changed to alter the situation for
foreign films in the United States for the better.

A number of new French films were exhibited, and the most notable of
them, David Golder, was not a pronounced success, although it drew fairish
praise from the press. Indeed, several lesser films, of more popular appeal

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" Ecstasy," by Gustav Machaty: See " Comment and Review."
' Ec state," de Gustav Machaty. Voir " Comment and Review."

from the Paramount-Joineville Studios in France did proportionately much
better — their musical content and bantering- dialogue suiting the so-called
" gay, American temperament " much better — though nothing in very
many months has augured anything very much for French films, musical
or otherwise in the States, not even Rene Clair's " Nous la Liberie," which
was accorded an indifferent reception by the public In not a few places,
Rene Clair's film did not go over at all, though the critics appreciated its
worth .

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In New York, a few Hungarian and Polish talkies were favourably
received by both press and public. Sporadic showings of talking pictures in
the Jugo-Slavic and allied Czech languages were also shown. Not very
many Soviet films came here since The Road to Life blazed the path for the
Soviet sound films in this country so auspiciously. Men and Jobs (it was
probably "called something else on the Continent), the first film of A.
Macharet, was very favourably received in New York, particularly because
it was leavened with merriment, an unusual quality for a film of this tvpe
to have.

What Eisenstein did for the tractor in Old and New, Macharet does for
the steam crane in Men and Jobs — and the result is eminently satisfactory.
Of course, everyone awaited Dovzhenko's first sound film which was
reputed to be in New York for some time, but no one knew what could be
done for it. Until the Cameo Theatre, one of the principal outlets for the
better Soviet films in New York, announced a single showing of Ivan, with
the newspaper advertisement running the line: " Too aesthetic for public
showing?" It remains to be seen how Ivan will be received and whether
it can ever become a popular film here. (Soil — or Earth, as it was also
known, was a distinctive " flop," in the movie parlance — even the critics
not having been able to see anything in it. It died a quick death in New
York and its subsequent bookings have been negligible, if an}'.)

It will probably come as a surprise to learn that Potemkin has been
synchronized, but not with Edmund Meisel's magnificent score, but with
some 10-20-30 " movie music," and a prologue and epilogue in English
setting forth the backgrounds of the story, winding up with a tacked-on
sequence displaying the re-building of the Soviet State, now that the Czar
is no more, etc. All verv anti-climatic and depressing, though it will be
verv interesting to see what appeal Potemkin still has with the American
masses, even in its dressed-up version. I saw it again the other night —
after a lapse of 5 or (i years, and that poor sacred-cow among film classics
shows signs of haying aged considerably, though there remain flashes
wherein Eisenstein, Alexandrov and Tisse were " right " and the effect is
as crushing on the spectator as it was then.

Die Hauptmann von Koepenick had its American premiere at the tiny
Europa in New York, drawing high praise from the critics, but even that
cannot save a good picture at the box-office, which is still the deciding factor
in the presentation of such things in America. This him will have an in-
different success at best, though five or six vears ago it would have called
for untold comment and crowds. Thus the movie scene changes and a
fickle public soon tires. . .

Nor is repertory any solution. Going back into the files to revive films
which had formerly done well has met with disastrous results in most cases.

Maedchen in Uniform continues to be the only German him that has
scored a pronounced and unquestioned success in America.'- Even the

* Excepting, of course, the phenomenal case of " Zwei Herzen im .'3/4 Takt."

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large de-luxe houses, which have never before featured a foreign language
film have played it and done splendidlv with Frau Sagan's piece.

Perhaps the solution of it mav remain in intelligent " dubbing " into
English of certain spectacular films, like the proposed English-dubbed
version of Fritz Lang's " M ." Certainly, if the best that can be done is
not better than RKO's " dubbing " of Der Raub der Mono. Lisa, the future
for the foreign language film in the United States looks dark indeed — having
been steadily on the wane for the past two years.

Dovzhenko's first sound film, Ivan, received two subscription show-
ings in New York to only fairish critical notice, though the attendance was
big, and was promptly relegated to the subsequent runs. It will not dupli-
cate the success of Nicolai Ekk's Road to Life, which must remain the only
successful Soviet talkie to date. Potemkin, re-issued in sound, and badly
done, did not prove popular.

France was represented by La Lune Sur I'Maroc, a fair success in New
York only, and the avant-garde film of the Prevert brothers, L' Affaire est
dans le Sae, shown for a single performance by the newly organized Film
Society. The French version of Dreigroschenoper, with Albert Prejean in
Foerster's role as Mackie Messer, had also a single showing by the Film
Society.

Germany was represented by Friederike, a Lehar score set to the story
of Goethe's life (or vice-versa, if you wish) and indifferentlv received. The
new von Bolvary-Stolz operetta, Ich Will Nicht Wissen wer du Bist, opened
on Broadway as will Mile. Sagan's Kadetten in the next few weeks. Eine
Nacht in Paradies with the ubiquitous Anny Ondra, the pride of the Czechs,
is best left un-noticed, as well as a number of lesser German musical films
and melodramas, like Der Tzauber von Tatra, Eine Tuer geht Auf . . . !,
u.s.w.

Clearly Zwei Herzen im 3/4 Takt came at psychologically the correct
moment ! It is suggested by the American distributors of the new von
Bolvary operetta, Ich Will Nicht Wissen Wer Du Bist, that if you liked Zwei
Herzen and Maedchen in Uniform, you will like Ich Will Nicht Wissen,
u.s.w. O Maedchen , what sins are committed in thy name !

ADDENDA
(b)

A shortage of product in Hollywood has opened the market for foreign
films in America considerably in the last few months. Two Ufa productions
are already up for sale in America, and bv the time this appears it mav be
possible that Columbia has purchased Pommer's 1933 super-production,
F.P.I Antwortet Nicht, and Paramount or Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has pur-
chased Morgenrot, Ufa's submarine epic with Rudolph Foerster. Universal
has already bought the English-German production, Be Mine To-Nigh t,

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Litwak's great musical success with Jan Kiepura, while Fox has long since
purchased the British-Gaumont production, After the Ball.

" M " — Fritz Lang's film has alreadv been released in a dubbed English
version, on which any reports cannot be given at this writing. Hertha's
Envachen encountered considerable censor trouble, which partly contributed
to its great success at the Little Carnegie Playhouse in New York where it
had its belated premiere. Very few deletions were made and it was well
received by the critics. Indeed, so much like another Maedchen in Uniform
did Hertha's Envachen appear, that both Paramount and Metro got to the
point of bidding for it for national release through their circuit of theatres.
As for Maedchen in Uniform, itself, it still continues to be the onlv success-
ful German film from a country-wide standpoint since Zwei Herzen im 3/4
Takt.

Dupont's film, Salto Mortale, shown originally at the Little Carnegie
Playhouse under the title of Trapeze, has been dubbed into Fnglish with a
view to releasing it nationally as The Circus of Sin — possibly after Samuel
Goldwyn has spent some thousands of dollars exploiting Anna Sten as an
American star. This practice of dubbing foreign language films into
English has never been successful either from a technical standpoint, or a
financial one. A recent example of that is The Song of Life, Granovsky's
early sound film (Das Lied vom Leben) which was howled off the little
Cameo screen in New York, in its English " version," though' it did well
in its German version, and got fine notices from the metropolitan critics.

British-Gaumont's Rome Express capped a spurt of eight bookings of
British films on Broadway within the last several months — a record. And,
right now, one of the surprise hits of the year is Calvacade, Noel Coward's
panorama of two generations of British life — so British in spirit and subject
that none thought it could ever be popular in America. That it was actually
made here is the most surprising thing for a producing company that rarely
takes " chances."

John Krimsky and Gifford Cochrane, those two enterprising young men
who brought Maedchen in Uniform to this country, purchased the German
film, Gehetze Menschen (Man Hunt) for release here, no doubt, encouraged
by the extraordinary success of the former.

As for the other German films in America, Ariane, in both English
and German versions has no distribution possibilities in sight; L'Atlantide
has also gone the rounds bur so far there have been no bids. It is rumoured
that Universal will release Pabst's new film, Don Quixote.

Kuhle Wampe, Bert Brecht's controversial film of the new vouth move-
ment in Germany, will hardly get a public release on account of its revolu-
tionary theme. The newly organized Film Forum has planned to show it
for its subscribers. L'Age D'Or, Luis Bunel's venture into cinematic sur-
realism has alreadv been given its first subscription showing before a startled
New York audience by the Film Associates. It is also hardly possible that
it will circulate freely, being anti-religious among other things. Rex
Ingram's Baroud, made in North Africa, came disguised as Love in Morocco

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J81

for a single booking at the Mayfair in New York. It was unfavourably
received and did not do well. Nor have the Soviet films been faring
particularly well of late. Shame, the new sound film with music bv Shosta-
kovich, came and went its quiet waj' without stirring much attention one
way or the other. All Soviet films of any pretentions are heralded as being
" as good as The Road to Life," for the simple reason that this latter was
so pronounced a box office success.

Victor Trivas' disturbing film, No Man's Land, is also here, having
been previewed recently by the august body of the National Board of Review
under the title of Hell on Earth .

Stokowski, the celebrated conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra,
selected the Soviet film, Odna, (Alone), by Kozintsoff and Trauberg, to
illustrate a programme of films and music given by the League of Composers.

With all this renewed activity in things foreign, the first sign of real
life in manv many months, it is seen that a slow but sure bovcott has already
begun its insidious work on foreign films in general (on account of the
stringent " Buv American " campaign now current) and on German films
in particular, on account of the chaotic political condition in German v. As
this is written, word comes that manv bookings of German films, even on
Maedchen in Uniform, have been cancelled by exhibitors who1 fear antagon-
ism from their patrons with anti-Hitler feelings. Business on German films
began to drop when the situation became acute and it is most probablv that
those major companies dickering for German productions will now hold
off until the " Hitler scare " blows over.

The foreign movie situation in America has reached a cross-roads. It
either gets a release through national channels with a guaranteed income
making it possible for the European producers to turn out product to suit
the American temperament, or it sinks back into the slough of a pseudo-art
movement at the hands of a few money-grabbing entrepeneurs who cannot
in any way make it possible for the producers abroad to want to make films
for America.

Herman G. Weinberg.

Baltimore, Md. April 1st.

THE TRAVELLING CAMERA

It is well known that a single scene of a film is composed of several shots.
Every part is photographed from a different camera set-up and obtains a new
camera angle, i.e., pictures differing optically from each other. These
" camera angles " are ranged together and when projected, give the impres-
sion of a scene which has been performed uninterruptedly.

In the place where two camera angles which belong logicallv together,
meet, the spectator is slightly confused — if for the fraction of a second onlv —
by the sudden change of the optical impression. One has found out, how-
ever, that the disagreeable effect of such a " crack " can be moderated if the
cutting takes places during the performance of an action. For the mind of
the onlooker completes the motion it has once comprehended, and thus over-
looks the change in the picture. But often a change of camera angle is
necessary where there is no motion in the picture. F.l. : From the long shot
of a static object one wants to " flow " into a close up. As there is no motion
to facilitate the transition, a sudden change would be unpleasant. But if
during the long-shot the camera begins to move nearer and nearer the object
so that finallv nothing but the desired detail is to be seen — this change from
one camera angle to the other is imperceptible.

The director can dispose of a flowing and an abrupt transition from one
camera angle to the other one. He must use one way or the other — accord-
ing to his aim.

Let us presume we see in a film somebodv giving a toast, and one wants
to show what are the reactions of the party — sitting in a long row around the
table. A succession of cuts would be necessary, as one proceeds from one
guest to the next one, and the abrupt change of picture would have a disagree-
able optical effect on the spectator, and would draw his attention from the
speech. And the greater the speed of the succeeding cuts the more disturbing
would be the effect. If (he camera, however, " tracks " along the table
allowing the row of those sitting there to pass before the eves uninterruptedly,
and making one person after the other glide into the centre of the picture, it
gives the feeling that one is oneself looking along a table, and the spectator
forgets the technical proceeding which, by resorting to cuts would be
obstrusive . Besides this another phenomenon of great importance is pro-
duced. That is the feeling of space, the perception of distance. For the
camera-moving along the table past plates, glasses, guests, convevs to the
spectator the idea of spatial depth which as it cannot be made perceptible by
means of the " one-eyed " camera only — is turned into motion which is the
primary means of expression of cinematography. Only since there is
a moving camera, the local connection of different places which cannot be
caught in one shot, and the simultaneous events in these places, can be made
perceptible.

Since the soundfilm has come into existence the travelling-shot or track
has been more frequently used, for thereby the planning of complicated

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dialogues is much facilitated, by the fact that persons can be shown in per-
manent motion ; thus they can go on with the dialogue for quite a long time
— for the ever changing optical impressions help to avoid an otherwise inevit-
able monotony. And as for musical pieces with their unchangeable length —
thev can be more easily accorded with optics. For such scenes of course the
sets must be chosen and prepared with greatest care.

In most of the studios there is no apparatus for moving camera shots, but
it must be constructed always anew according to the problem. A somewhat
primitive car with balloon tyres is the only perquisite to be found. It is of
various shapes and systems, and is the most imperfect instrument in the
studios of nowadays. It should be dirigible in order to follow every gesture
of the actors, it should be shockproof and soundless. But it is nothing of the
kind, no matter whether it has 3 or 4 wheels joined by a cog chain, or moving
and turning freely, or constructed like the axle of a motor car. With great
resistance only the car obeys its driver, even on a course specially prepared
for each drive.

A " track " is very carefully prepared. The actors rehearse the scene
innumerable times to be able to perform every gesture in the same place, and
at the same fixed moment. It is calculated in advance whether the camera or
the actor must leave their place first, at what speed the actor and the camera
must move, at which place the one must wait for or overtake the other, and
where absolute simultaneity is desired. Utmost precision of all these
manoeuvres is necessary : For the camera-man must keep the actors always
in the centre of the picture, and the sharpness of the picture must remain the
same during the shot — a procedure which necessitates continual adjustment
of the focus. The lighting of a moving camera shot is a difficult task, and
in complicated cases special lighting bridges are constructed. The moving
camera shot has also influenced the building of sets very much'; nowadays
several rooms are often built in series.

Once I built a whole Komplex, consisting of a house with a street, house
entrance, hall and staircase, with several stories, and a suite of apartments.
For the lighting of such buildings through which the camera moved contin-
ually, a great number of lamps is necessary, and as they must burn simul-
taneously an enormous quantity of current is used up.

For economy the street in front of the studio was built into the open air,
and the open studio door formed the connection with the sets built within.
The street had a length of about 120 metres, was asphalted and consisted of
two ranks of houses of 4 stories each', and ended in a cross road, the houses
of which limited the view. The camera stood on a car in front of a house
entrance. From the whirling traffic of motor cars, carriages and passers-by
the principal actor separated and walked towards the camera. While he was
coming near the camera it began to drive into the entrance hall, keeping the
actor continually in the picture. He had now entered the house and was
hurrying along the hall. The house is a Berlin tenement which ends in a
court yard. The camera drove into the court vard in the middle of which a

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lift — 16 metres high — had been erected. The lift had been built in a distance
of 6 metres from the staircase where the actor had to walk up to the 4th floor.
The camera which had rolled across the courtyard drove up to the platform
of the lift which began to ascend by means of an electric derrick. Thereby
the camera rose outside the staircase, and caught the actor on each floor —
through the window. The camera having arrived before the window of the
4th floor, the actor is seen standing before a door. While he is unlocking it
the lift on the platform of which, 12 metres in height, the camera with its car,
the camera man and staff are standing — is pushed to the staircase. When the
actor steps through the opened door, the camera follows him into the flat on
the 4th floor, through several rooms and at last to an open balcony where
the actor stands and looks at a window of the house opposite.

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Similar but much simpler was a case where a person had to be accom-
panied into the hall of a villa. The facade of the villa built in the studio was
the exact copy of a real villa. Eight steps led from the street level up to the
■entrance, and these eight steps the camera had to pass. For this purpose a
car was set up, the platform of which stood out sufficiently to allow that when
the car was pushed forward, the front edge of the platform would meet the
uppermost step, and thus form one level with the entrance. On the car thus
furnished stood a second car on which the camera was placed. The shot
was taken thus : the main car was set in motion and pushed forward until
the second car could be pushed through the door into the hall without a jerk.
The motions of both cars had to flow into each other quite imperceptibly —
without any difference in speed at the moment the car below came to a stand-
still and the one above was set in motion.

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Technically much simpler but very interesting in its effect was a moving
camera shot Mr. Pabst ordered to be constructed in the film Westfront.
The scene showed soldiers proceeding through an entanglement. Mr. Pabst
wanted to photograph the people from below while they were working their
way through the entanglement, he wanted to track with them and accompany
them to their new shelter. At the end of the track when the soldiers arrive
in a shell-crater*, the camera is to look down into it from above. Thus the

* Granattrichter = the funnel-shaped hole a shell makes in the earth.

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ways of the actors and the camera have crossed : While the camera was dig-
ging its way deep into the earth, the actors were crawling along the surface.
At the end of the drive the camera reached the surface of the earth', and the
actors are deep in the earth at the bottom of the crater.

The most puzzling problem was perhaps another one, also set up by Mr.
Pabst. The decor was a stone cave. It was shut on its four sides and also
at the top, which is very rare with sets. In this enclosure water stood 1.50
metres deep. The floor of the set was made uneven, SO' that the actors who
had to wade through the water could proceed only with caution, feeling their
way step by step. Mr. Pabst wanted to track before the actors. That was a
difficult problem. For it was impossible to put a car into the water, not only
because the ground was uneven, but also because the surface of the water had
been covered with coaldust, peat, etc., and in that the trace of the camera
would have been visible. Nor could one suspend the camera, for the set was
closed at the top. Therefore I had a beam built, which stood horizontally
out into the air without support for 16 metres, and which was stuck into the
narrow side of the decor through a low entrance. On one end of it besides
the camera sat Mr. Pabst and Mr. Wagner the cameraman. While the
scene was being taken the beam was drawn back, and the camera and
director and cameraman were suspended in the air — supported by the beam
which had its own support 16 metres away !

By their continual flow moving camera shots have much charm ; they
are pleasant to watch and enchanting in their gliding fluency. But they do
not always fit into the rhythm of the film when it is finished. For in these
cases great difficulties arise as to the montage of the film, and quite often
the moving camera shot which has been made writh utmost care and a great
amount of money cannot be used. This happened for example to the street
with the staircase and the lift (first example) ; in the film for which it had
been made it never saw the light of the cinema projector.

Erno Metzner,

Budapest.

WHAT SHALL YOU DO IN THE WAR. ?

" To be a Jew is bad, and to be a Communist is worse, but to
be a Pacifist is unforgivable .

— Popular German slogan.

A year ago this June I returned from Berlin. I came from a city where
police cars and machine guns raced about the streets, where groups of
brown uniforms waited at each corner. The stations had been crowded :
not with people bound for the Baltic with bathing bags, but with families
whose bundles, cases or trunks bulged with household possessions. (The
fortunate were already going into exile). Everywhere I had heard rumors
or had seen weapons. Then I crossed to London and to questions " what is
Pabst doing now" or "will there be another film like Madchen in Uniform ?"
I said " I didn't gol to cinemas because I watched the revolution " and they
laughed, in England.

Butt the revolution is a fact now even to people quite uninterested in
politics. The Manchester Guardian and the Nation printed a little of the
truth. They have been banned in Germany. Mowrer in Germany Puts the
Clock Back quoted documents and they tried to turn him out of
the country. Actually the real news of the rebellion could not be printed
in any newspaper. Tortures are freely employed, both mental and physical.
Hundreds have died or been killed, thousands are in prison, and thousands
more are in exile.

A great number are Jews. Six hundred thousand, many of them men
who were among the finest citizens Germany had, peaceful and hard
working, are to be eliminated from the community. In future no> Jew is tu
have the rights of an ordinary citizen. He may be made to fight for Ger-
many but his children are to be denied an education. But besides these
Jews and in a way in even worse plight (for they have no other country to
which to turn) are the hundreds of liberal minded Protestant Germans who
are accused of trying to build up an alliance with France.

" To be a Jew is bad, to be a Communist is worse, but to be a Pacifist
is unforgivable." This very popular slogan sums up the revolution. For
it is a revolution against the whole conception of peace.

Germany says that she does not want war. This is probably true as far
as the statement applies to the present year. She would like first to re-train,
re-equip and re-arm the entire folk. But unless her pre-war territory be
handed back to her, it is doubtful if she will content herself with any peace-
ful protest.

This is not a place to discuss the complicated question of treaty revision.
It must be remembered, however, that " two wrongs do not make a right "

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189

and that it would not be honorable on the part of Europe, to transfer popula-
tions to a land that has denied equal rights of citizenship to many of its most
loyal families.

For twelve years a liberal and moderate minded section of the German
people fought a losing fight. They won popular opinion in England and
America over to their side. Treaty revision and the German right to re-arm
were discussed in a manner impossible anywhere some years ago. German
goods were bought, German films shown and books read, and Germans were
welcomed abroad as students and tourists. In exactly three weeks the
national socialists smashed what it had taken twelve years of patient and
unrewarding work to build.

Think of their blunders ! Only a government wilfully ignorant of
English conditions or extremely afraid, would ban a paper that has the
Manchester Guardian's reputation for honesty and impartial criticism. How
was it possible for them not to realise that Protestant and Catholic alike
would re-act with horror to their boycott of inoffensive Jews.

Books by Heinrich and Thomas Mann, Remarque, Arnold Zweig,
Stefan Zweig, Tucholsky, Feuchtwanger, Schnitzler, Glaeser, and many
other authors, together with foreign translations have been taken from the
libraries and publicly burnt. The writers themselves have been forced into
exile and and in many cases, their possessions in Germany confiscated.

Heinrich and Thomas Mann both come from a north German non-Jewish
family and their work has contributed more than is realised to the over-
coming of hostility towards German intellectual life at the end of the war.
Heinrich Mann was, we believe, the first German writer to be invited to visit
a group of French authors after the Armistice and both his books and those
of his brother enjoy an international reputation.

Schnitzler died before the present conflict and was never a poli-
tical writer. Several of the other authors are banned merely because they
wished to help towards a better feeling for France.

Pabst who did more than any one, to open the cinemas of the world to
German films, has been exiled and it is said a price has been put on his head
should he approach a German frontier. They will never forgive him (he
fraternising of French with German workmen in Kameradschajt. All his
films have been banned in Germany. The men who worked with him and
under him, have been scattered across Europe. It is said in fact, that barely
ten per cent, of the workers in the German studios of last year, are left.

Hundreds of Jewish doctors have been forbidden to practise and have
been dismissed from the hospitals. They are unable to obtain work and in
several cases known to me personally, they have been left to starve. Einstein
and many of their best scientists are in exile. Those who waited too long,
or could not afford a railway ticket, are shot or are in prison.

It is quite possible that a lot of German citizens do not realise what is
happening. If a man complains of his treatment or of the new laws, he is

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beaten to death or sent to a concentration camp. Should he escape across
the border, his nearest relative or a friend pays the penalty for him.

It is also extremely probable that English tourists staving at hotels fre-
quented by foreigners in the main cities will see little of what is happening.
Last June, I walked down the Kurfurstendamm amongst a number of people
shopping and staring quietly at the windows of the various stores. One
street away, several men were killed and injured in a so-called political row.
The average tourist knowing little of the language would never have heard
of it. As for English speaking people there for trade or study, they have
either to accept the present regime, even to the point of saying in their letters
how wonderful it is, or a pressure of small events will combine to- force them
to departure. They may talk when they get back to England but they won't
while they are there.

For the last fifteen years people have used the words peace and war
so much that the sound of them means nothing at all. They have read war
books, said " how terrible " and gone on to read accounts of life in the south
seas or on a farm or stories of a feudal castle, as if all were equally real or
perhaps better, unreal. They have signed resolutions and exchanged armis-
tice memories and sighed (if they are old enough) for " the good old days
before the war." But very few have ever made a constructive attempt to
prevent the months of 1914 from being repeated on a larger and worse scale.

I do not think a pacifism of theories and pamphlets is of any use. The
mass of the people desires action. In this respect both fascism and
communism alike respond to primitive psychological needs. Ninety per
cent, of any nation want deeds and not ideas.

If this point of view is to govern the world, then we can hope only for
war, with intervals of peace. But in one of these upheavals (and in spite of
speeches how near we are to it at present) the whole of civilisation may dis-
appear. And we shall not return to the Utopia of the machine-less savage,
so often evoked by romantic writers, because the native of the Congo say or
the south seas is the product of an elaborate scheme of life that has taken
generations of peace to evolve. The barbarism to which we should return
would be something so cruel and so stark that only the very cunning or the
very strong could hope for survival. It would be comparatively easy even
to-day, for half Europe to perish from starvation.

It is said that in the Balkan countries not a child is adequately fed, but
that every third person is in uniform. They do not organise their
food supplies but they find money for their armies. One rash move on the
part of desperate young boys, might loose war right across Europe.

I believe peace still to be possible. But on condition only that we light
for it now as hard as we should fight in war.

If we want peace, we must fight for the liberty to think in terms of peace,
for all the peoples of Europe. It is useless for us to talk about disarmament
when children are being trained in military drill and when every leader of
intellectual thought in Germany is exiled or silenced.

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Democracy may have many faults but the democracies that have been
longest established have the least record of wars. Look at Switzerland and
the United States. The Crimea apart, we had for almost a century no Euro-
pean fighting. Autocracy (and autocracy can come from a system as well
as from an individual) breeds discontent. Discontent discharges itself in war.

Whether the danger come from a repressed and irritated people
or whether it be deliberately provoked by a group, we are faced at this moment
with a danger greater than at any time since 1918. Do not let the lessons of
the last war be lost. Remember if mass excitement is loosed, few of us will
be able to retain clear judgment or to stand against the pressure of mass feel-
ing. Make your decision now while you have still time to work for whatever
you believe.

And remember that Austria, though a German speaking country,
is struggling still to preserve her independence and that one should differen-
tiate between the two countries and not group them together because
of language similiarity.

If one believes that there is never a justification for war, then it is one's
duty to join a peace organisation and fight for peace, not through the signing
of resolutions but through an attempt to help those who are now suffering
because they believed in peace. One should try to spread knowledge of other
nations among the many English in outlying villages who still believe a
foreigner to be not quite as human as themselves. Remember that abstract
words about peace mean very little : and that the first impressions that a child
receives about another country will be lasting. If you know children find
out if their geography lessons are interesting and what they think about other
nations.

But it would be advisable to join an organisation and keep in touch with
it, not to come with conscientious objections discovered only on the outbreak
of war.

On the other hand, those who think that there are times when a resort
to arms is justified, should decide what to do if there were war. What train-
ing have they? Do they know anything of modern warfare?

Remember that the last war proved to us that we have no right to demand
a man who does not believe in war, to be a soldier, for we failed in our war
and we have all but failed in our peace. But we have the right to demand
that everyone shall choose now, and not when struggle is upon us, whether
he or she will fight or not. And if one does not wish to fight, one must think
if all is being done now that can make peace possible?

What I write applies to women equally with men. They will be con-
scripted in the next war; already there is labor conscription for them in Ger-
many and it is said that a similar law would be applied upon the outbreak of
hostilities in France.

Let us decide what we will have. If peace, let us fight for it. And fight
for it especially with cinema. By refusing to see films that are merely propa-
ganda for any unjust system. Remember that close co-operation with the
United States is needed if we are to preserve peace, and that constant sneers

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at an unfamiliar way of speech or American slang will not help towards
mutual understanding'. And above all, in the choice of films to see, remem-
ber the many directors, actors and film architects, who have been driven out
of the German studios and scattered across Europe, because they believed in
peace and intellectual liberty.

The future is in our hands for every person influences another. The film
societies and small experiments raised the general level of films considerably
in five years. It is for you and me to decide whether we will help to raise
respect for intellectual liberty in the same wav, or whether we all plunge, in
every kind and color of uniform, towards a not to be imagined barbarism.

Bryher.

STORM OVER HOLLYWOOD

At the present moment of writing a resolution has been introduced in
the United States House of Representatives calling for the appointment of
a Congressional committee to investigate the American film industry.

According to the charges set forth in support of the resolution, " assets
of corporations within the industry are being dissipated, dividends are being
passed, stock values are being lowered, and nothing is being done to protect
the rights of stockholders. Moreover, many picture corporations are ask-
ing for or being placed in the hands of receivers, are going into bankruptcy
or being involved in equity proceedings, due to existing conditions within
the industry itself and to financial operations of outside elements seeking
control of the industry."

Whether the film magnates, through their heretofore powerful political
influence, will be able to forestall this threatened investigation, is neither
here nor there. The significance of the immediate circumstances lies in
the fact it points an expressive finger at the heart of the present critical
situation of the American cinema.

The fantastic extravagance that for more than a decade has character-
ized the management of the industry would alone years ago have wrecked
any ordinary business, and when to this there has been added a giddy revel
of stock juggling and madcap speculation, with producers more interested
in playing the market than in making pictures, an already bewildered world
stands lost in amazement at Hollywood's so long evasion of the inevitable
whirlwind.

However, out of the clouds of the depression the storm has broken at
last. Whether it will have blown itself out bv the time this appears in print,
is, like everything else pertaining to Hollywood, beyond logical calculation.
At any rate, history has already recorded that its preliminary blasts swept
three major companies into bankruptcy, closed the studios of two others,

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disorganized all production schedules, threw hundreds of workers into the
ranks of the unemployed, dumped upon the market from the vaults of one
of the biggest companies more than two million dollars worth of accumu-
lated film stories, and, after this devastating sweep through the studios, left
the remaining occupants, peer and commoner alike, with but half of their
former pay.

Amid the prevailing dust and confusion it is impossible at the moment
to foresee the outcome. One thing appears certain, however : Wall Street
bankers and other moneyed individuals who for years have been dumping
gold into the bottomless pit of Hollywood's fatuous prodigality — bewitched
in common with humbler mortals by the glamour of the movies — will have
nothing more to do with the business under the old regime. They have
waked up to their folly, disillusioned, as well as intolerably bitten, and
have pulled shut the drawstrings of their now flabby money bags. As
creditors, there is present talk among them of installing a financial dictator,
to take over the management of Hollywood in the hope of pulling them-
selves out of the hole. All that may deter them is the superstition which
Hollywood from the beginning has assiduously propagated, that there is
some peculiar magic involved in the making of pictures — a magic whose
secret is known only to the Hollywood initiates.

The producers themselves, deprived for the nonce of their accustomed
financial support, and fearful of losing their official heads, if nothing more,
are frightenedly casting about for some means whereby they can continue
their business on a self-sustaining basis. Being an untried procedure on
their part, they have turned to their high priest, Will Hayes, for comfort
and guidance.

That handv gentleman, with characteristic optimism, has alreadv
brought forward a five-point programme of readjustment. Among other
things, by way of a novel experiment, it calls for the application to the
industry of intelligent economies and management. Emboldened by this
revolutionary suggestion, Mr. Hayes goes even farther and tops off his
programme by calling upon the producers " to stabilize motion-picture
entertainment as a major art," and to so regulate their instincts, " that the
screen ma}- reflect the highest possible social standards."

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Well,
this is a day of miracles, and even the impossible may not offhand be so
adjudged. Hollywood has more than once confounded a skeptic world.
Storm-tossed as it now is, with rudders damaged and much costly cargo
doomed to be jettisoned, there can nevertheless be no doubt of its eventual
mastery of the situation. A Jonah — several Jonahs — may have to be pitched
overboard, and mayhap a different captain placed in command, along with
a less rollicking crew, but Hollvwood as an institution will remain im-
pregnable so long as man's primitive delight in story and picture continues
to inhere in an evolving civilizaton.

Clifford Howard.

COMMENT AND REVIEW

As we anticipate that Close Up will not be acceptable in Germany during
the present revolution, or may even share the distinction of such newspapers
as The Manchester Guardian and The New Statesman, in being banned ; we
do- not propose to print any translation of captions in that language, as has
been our custom, until further notice.

Film and Photo Exhibition, Paris. 1933.

For a long time we had heard about a great international exhibition to
be held in Paris this Spring. Under -the auspices of nearly all the impor-
tant organisations comprising these two industries, it was to- be a quersch-
nitt of their function and place throughout the entire world.

Hope dawned. But shortly after news came that the promotors had
disappeared or been sent to jail.

Another exhibition, however, less ambitious, came along instead,
organised by the Chambre Syndicale des Industries et du Commerce Photo-
graphiques.

Without knowing the promoters, we regret to have to say that their
exhibition was certainly banal in the extreme. It has even to be asked why
the word " cinema " was included, for apart from several projectors and
cameras — which would interest only technicians, and they would be alreadv
familiar with them — nothing to do with cinematography was exhibited !

The almost total absence of things pertaining to cinema was not the only
thing to be deplored. Far more disconcerting were the essentially platitu-
dinous photos on show. Two or three good ones, slipped in by some
mischance, and the rest null.

One escaped disheartened, thinking of the wonderful things that might
have been revealed. It was odd to realise that in 1933 they were showing
photographs that our fathers would have scorned. Opening at length the
catalogue, light dawned !

Here are passages taken at random from the articles :

Tous les Parisiens ont vu cent fois cette scene par les rues : s'agit-il de quelque
evenement sensationnel ou seulement d'actualite? Ce sont les photographies qui tiennent
le haut du pave — et souvent tout le pave. A eux la premiere place, quand ce n'est pas
toute la place. Et la foule, sagement rangee au bord des trottoirs, suit avec sympathie
les photographies courant, jumelle 13 X 18 en mains, sinon avec legerete, du moins avec
liberte sur la chaussee defendue.

Qui done divertirait ce public dans l'attente parfois un peu longue, si ce n'etaient ces
photographes et le chien affole qui trotte au milieu des deux foules alignees sans oser
devier a droite ni a gauche? Et quand le cortege officiel est passe, quand les autos des
agences se precipitent en trombe avec, sur leur toit, l'appareil de prises de vues braque
et l'operateur en equilibre, Dieu sait comme ! oh ! alors, quel enthousiasme !

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195

After so lamentable a literature, it is easier to understand the spirit of
the organisers.

Les plaisirs de la photographic ne sont pas moindres en hiver qu'en ete. Bien que
la lumiere soit moins vive et que les jours soient plus courts, il est encore possible de
prendre des scenes fort interessantes et meme, grace a la haute sensibilite des Emulsions
photographiques modernes, des sujets animes.

It is hard to believe ! One trembles to think what would be the tone of
a real exhibition of cinematography should so dangerous an idea ever strike
them ! J. L.

The Film Societv of New York has imported and exhibited L' Affaire
est dans le Sac, the Prevert bouff e-fi\m with the young American actress
Lora Hays, and the Bunuel-Dali sardonic L'Age d'Or. Revivals include
Clarence Badger's Ray Griffith farce Pass to Paradise and Mamoulian's
inaugural film Applause, and Cocteau's Le Sang d'un Poete. Among
the short films there have been Moholy-Nagy's Lichtspiel, a prehistoric
Muybridge " au ralenti " clip, a thrilling document of Moscow celebrations,
Walt Disney's first colour symphony Flowers and Trees (a later one King
Neptune having been shown on the first program), Mail, the Russian multi-
plication-film of which I wrote (as Post) in March, 1931, Close Up, Nesting
of the Sea Turtle, bv Flovd Crosby and Robert Ferguson, etc.

The Film Forum, favoring films of social content, started with Lang's
M, followed with Dovzhenko's Ivan, and has shown Kuhle Wampe, Elvey's
High Treason (despite its tawdriness, because New York suppressed it) and
Pudovkin's Mother, a 16 mm print. Mr. Weinberg has mentioned that this
film was suppressed some years ago. It is, of course, not, as Mr. Wein-
berg wrote, a pogrom-story but a picture of a revolutionary strike of the 1905
period. Its suppression was not a typical one, but Avas the work of the
Treasury department at the Mexican border. More (or less) than a question
of subject-matter was involved. In the supporting program of the Forum
there have been a Russian plastic animation, newsreels by the Workers' Film
and Photo League, portions of the National Board of Review's compilation
The March of the Movies, a newsreel symposium arranged by the Forum on
Hitler and Hitlerism, and a Fox Magic Carpet travelog Gorges of the Giants,
one of the most remarkable films made. The concluding sequence of the
Yangtze boatmen caught in the skein of their ropes, foreheads almost touch-
ing the ground, is one of the most drastic portions the screen has exhibited.

The Film Forum is holding, with the Picture Department of the New
York Public Library, an exhibit of stills at the latter place. Jay Leyda of
the Workers' Film and Photo League lias arranged the display, which
ranges historically from the movie's beginnings to the present, geographi-
cally from Hollywood circling the /globe eastward to Europe and Japan,
aesthetically from the narrative-film to the abstract. Included are interesting
pre-war American posters, and Russian and Japan posters of more recent
years. H_ A> p>

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Ecstasy, directed by Gustay Machtay (Elektafilm, Prague).

We have become so modest in our long period of starvation for good
films that we thankfully receive any experiment along the line of films as art.
We appreciate the tendency, be the outcome failure or success.

A young woman is married to an oldish gentleman, with all the egotistic
habits of a long bachelorhood — she feels neglected, bored and deeply
disappointed, and finally runs away from her husband and home.

She takes refuge on her father's estate in the country, in the fields and
woods, where she takes long rides on horseback, swims in the clear water of
the lakes, giving way to the freshness and activity of her youth.

It is there that she meets a young man, that the experience of a passionate
and happy love is the outcome.

To point out the contrast between the sober narrowness of her first
matrimonial experience and the wideness and wildness of free primitive
nature is the main tendency of the film. Gustav Machaty, the talented Czech
director, has chosen the open fields, and the thick woods of the Russian
Carpathians for his outdoor scenes. Man is a part of nature and linked to
it with the flowers and animals. The photography is masterful; for a long
film I have not seen such shots taken with so much love and understanding
of the beauty of the country and animals and clouds. The film is somehow
akin to Granowsky's Song of Life, and they have more in common than the
person of the young actor, the natural and very congenial Aribert Mog.
Hedy Kiesler who plays the female part is very young and very beautiful,
but her beautv is that of a statue, lacking dynamic expression ; thus her
passion is not very convincing.

The husband (extremely well represented by Zvonimir Rogoz) is shown
in the beginning as a dry, over-punctilious fellow, who does not have our
sympathy at all, exaggerated even to a slight caricature, symbolized by a
pair of shining, well cleaned eve-glasses. But when he comes to the estate
to ask his wife to come back to him, when she refuses and he recognises
what had happened in the meantime, he is so miserable and wretched in
his loneliness that he nearly abstracts our sympathy from the young couple,
who celebrate the festival of their love in the same house and at the same hour
in which he commits suicide. Which event forms a separation between the
young lovers — the end is not clear : they are waiting for a train in a station
at night, the man falls asleep and the women steals away from him and
leaves with the train. That was the version shown in Vienna. The original
version is said to be more intelligible.

The film was turned as a silent film and if it had been made some years
ago it would have been shown in the cinemas accompanied by a more or less
fitting music, produced by the local cinema orchestra. But since we live in.
the decade of the achievement of the sound film, this more or less fitting
music was synchronized, and because we are also able to reproduce the human
voice the actors have to say one or two words on special occasions, which
has an utterly inverted effect.

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The title Ecstasy which does not correspond to the film at all, already
shows the means by which the film-renters and cinema owners — in Vienna
at least — wanted to attract the audience. The film which is purer and more
innocent that the stuff which is on the screen daily was announced as " erotic
sensation, revealing the mysteries of sex, etc.", they put stills in the windows
where the principal actress is shown bathing nude, with a strip of paper
pasted across her body, and there were interviews in the newspapers, where
the actress declared she had been forced to play these scenes. But I have
a slight suspicion that the number of the people who did not go to see the
film because of the tasteless advertisement was greater than the number of
those who expected a pornographic sensation and were seriouslv disappointed.

T. W.

COUNTER PLAN.

Counter Plan, the new Soviet talkie jointly directed by Ermler and Yut-
kevich has received a chorus of praise from the New York critics. The
" Herald-Tribune," for instance, describes it as " Russia's ten best rolled
into one." While not agreeing with this somewhat rhapsodic estimation, we
can nevertheless say that Counter Plan is an important film, a film that no
up-to-the-minute student of Russian life can afford to miss.

First, let us consider its social aspects. The Russia presented here is
the Russia of large-scale and quick-tempo industrialisation. The social con-
sciousness of the people is centered on the job. At all costs the job must be
done and done on time. But don't assume that Counter Plan is all
machinery. It is people and machinery — their own machinery for which they
are responsible. And so when the job breaks down, when the cylinder for
some inexplicable reason is found to' be "off centre," the reactions of the
people associated with the factory towards the disaster are minutely examined.

There is Babchenko, a tremendous character, an old and skilled work-
man who likes his drop of alcohol, and is consequently in the bad books of
Pavel, the editor of the factory paper, who is altogether too hard on the old
man.

There is Vasia, leader of the Party Cell, who understands the foibles and
weaknesses of the old man, and plays up to them. For Babchenko is a type
we can readily understand and sympathise with — an old worker who has not
got accustomed to these " new fangled ideas " of collectivisation which they
have introduced into " his " factory, but who nevertheless takes a tremen-
dous personal pride in his work, and who, thanks to the sympathetic attitude
of Vasia, gradually approaches to a fuller and deeper understanding of the
new society.

There is the engineer Skvortzov, another wonderful character. He it is
who has sabotaged the factory. His type is portrayed with complete objec-
tivity— there is not a suspicion of exaggeration . He knows of the defects in
the plan of the turbine. But he is paid for working, not for reporting other

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peoples mistakes. There is an amazing scene when he realises that his
class, the old ruling class, is doomed. He is a survival of that class, but
pathetically strives to avoid the inevitable social extermination.

" What is to become of us? his mother asks him. " Don't ask me, ask
Lenin ; he knows everything," is the reply. " I suppose I shall have to beg
for alms in the name of Christ — no, in the name of Karl Marx, otherwise I
shan't get any."

Skvortzov's job, apart from his work in the factory, is to give technical
training to young workers. Ironicallv enough it is one of his own pupils
who discovers the mistake in the plans, and so Skvortzov is exposed and
arrested.

The last reel of Counter Plan, when the turbine is ready for testing, pro-
vides one of the finest instances of the dramatic use of sound we have seen.
The machine is started ; the volume of sound swells and swells ; the workers
tense with excitement, stand round ; the noise becomes ever greater as danger
point is reached ; the whole screen seems readv to explode in our faces, and
then, at the critical moment the boom of the machine is changed to a steady,
musical hum, signifying success.

The workers surge round the machine, cheering. Sitting apart, ignored
by everyone, is Skvortzov, applauding hysterically. He who tried so
miserably to turn back the wheels of history shivers pathetically, alone and
forgotten, while the workers sing a song of victory.

Yutkevich and Ermler are described as belonging to the "Stalin"
school. Stalin insisted upon the creation of real people in Soviet art, and
the directors have successfully followed this advice. The characters in
Counter Plan are real people. To borrow the phrase of the publicity sheets,
we see Russians as they are and not as they ought to be.

We must add that the photography is superb. A sequence shewing two
lovers walking through one of Leningrad's " White Nights " is a veritable
masterpiece of camera work.

The one big fault of Counter Plan is its inordinate length and occasional
slowness of development, indicating a certain carelessness in the construction
of the scenario. We understand that this fault is recognised and that the
English copy will be cut to a more workable length prior to any public
presentation.

Ralph Bond.

MEDICAL FILMS

When the March issue was already in the press, we received Kodak's
new catalogue of Medical Motion Pictures. We should like to record our
appreciation of this achievement — a catalogue of 234 pages with index.
Anatomy; Case records; Dentistry; Ear, Nose and Throat; First Aid;
Neurology ; Obstetrics and Gynaecology ; Ophthalmic ; Orthopaedic :
Physiology; Public Health Lectures ; Radium and Rav Therapv ; Research ;

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Sister-Tutors and Nurses; Surgery, Veterinary Surgery — these make the
group headings of the index !

It had been found that, in the medical motion picture, the man behind
the camera should have an understanding of the subject based on a detailed
knowledge of the work in hand. The technique of the Cine-Kodak has been
reduced to fundamentals, so that if the camera is held steadily, the focus set
and the lens aperature adjusted in accordance with a few simple instructions,
the result is a photographically correct record of the subject.

Kodak's Medical Department undertake the production of pictures out-
side their own studio. The inclusive charge for 300 feet is £12 — all taking
costs, laboratory and editing expenses : and it must be remembered that
the stock is 16 m/m.

O. B.

" QUICKSILVER "

Len Lye planned a colour picture, Quicksilver. Laura Riding wrote
the words. John Aldridge did about forty colour sketches of scenes. Six
of these sketches were included in Aldridge's exhibition at the Leicester
Gallery. The titles are : Entrance to Undersea Cabaret, Waterspouts and
Clouds form into a Temple, Cloud Circus, The last 'bus home from the South
Pole, Entrance-hall of Temple, Venus returns to the Sea-Surface.
The colours are softly penetrable, making the kind of world which
we would like to enter. Forms are spun out of eddies of force and
place the colour film in line with systems of philosophic thought. Appear-
ance and reality, mind and body, the " electronic jump " — such problems
can all be resolved (not necessarily in Quicksilver but suggested by these
designs) in the colour film medium.

Film Societies which wish to back film creators are advised to apply to
Len Lye who holds an elaborate shooting script of Quicksilver with margin
drawings.

O. B.

IT'S A RACKET

We've got to keep on hammering these publicity men just as long as
they keep on turning out their sleep-walking drivel. To make our hits more
belh" aching we aren't going to spare names this time. So here's some more
genuine extracts from the new publicity sheets.

NUMBER ONE. " Lee Tracey, playing the lead in Private Jones,
takes the biscuit. He asked his current girl friend for an opinion on a
magazine story written about him. The " Payoff " is in the title : Four
Reasons Why I Won't Marry. The girl friend's opinion isn't given out for
publication." Perhaps it's a new religion?

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NUMBER TWO. " While my home life is exemplary, I have a
strange weakness for Zasu Pitts, who enjoys herself by pinching me when we
are making our most important scenes at Universal City." We're all for
frankness, anyway.

NUMBER THREE. Lee Tracy seems to be a favourite with the
publicity boys. " He was peeling onions in a Defaulters scene and the
strength of the fruit started him crying. ' You're supposed to be just mad
about it,' interrupted Mack, ' you aren't supposed to break down and sob !'
' How can I help it?' asked Tracey, ' with these onions?' So they changed
the scene to potatoes." We can register that mad business O.K.

NUMBER FOUR. " Barnett is wearing a violent-hued yellow
sweater with black stripes. He is hoping that the tigers will think he is
just a brother or something !"

Herbert Jones told us a line he overheard when two kids were quarreling :
" Of course an airplane is bigger than a star ; take them down and see !"

O. B.

MANCHESTER FILM SOCIETY

We are hoping to make four short films, a policy which I think is far
more likely to be successful than trying to make one long one, which is
what most people try to do.

The Five Pound Night is a tale about a man who spends a night in
the Chamber of Horrors at a waxworks show for a bet, and is found dead
in the morning. This is a " cameraman's picture " as you can probably
guess from the subject.

She was only a smuggler's daughter — but — Oh boy, she's gonna be
some ' heroin ' is the rather longwinded title of a comedy which I am making.
We are making this our usual annual burlesque of the Hollywood profes-
sionals, choosing as our subject a " take-off " of the dope-smuggling theme.
The story is concerned with a band of dope smugglers operating on the
Bridgewater canal and we have arranged with the canal company to let us
have a barge for a weekend so that we can go off for a camping trip along
the canal and get some really authentic shots of canal life.

The Adventures of a Penny is being directed by A. L. Roussin who
always prefers to work behind a veil of secrecy — but usually gets a result
worth seeing.

Manchester is a documentary film of this town, attempting to see it
through the eyes of an American tourist. It is being made jointly by
myself and J. F. Moseley. Moseley is one of the recognised authorities on
" old Manchester." He is writing the scenario and directing the picture,
while I am taking over complete control of the technical side and the
publicitv. When the film is completed we are hoping to get it shown
in the 12 Manchesters in the United States, on the same lines as Warne's
film " Bristol — Birthplace of America " has been shown in the 19 American
Bristols.

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Our film opens with the arrival of an American liner at Manchester
Docks and ends with the imaginary tourist leaving from the Municipal Air
Port. The picture has, obviously, got enormous possibilities and is the
biggest thing we have tried, but it is going to take some making.

P. A. le Neve Foster.

TELEVISION
By Carleton L. Dyer,
(The young Canadian Managing Director of the Philco Radio and Television

Corporation of Great Britain.)
I feel it my duty to try to calm the palpitations of heart and purse of the
cinema fans and members of the motion-picture and radio industries here,
caused by the statement in the Daily Press of the usually astute Mr. Samuel
Goldwyn, to the effect that television will be available in the homes of most
people in 18 months' time, for, from mv considerable experience with the
aerial projection of pictures, I would say that five years from now would be
an optimistic estimate for the things which Mr. Goldwyn predicts coming
into operation.

A pronouncement in the entertainment industry from Mr. Goldwyn
usually carries a lot of weight, for he has had an enviable record of successes
in the cinema industry, but when he spoke to the newspapers he went com-
pletely off the famous deep end. It is my experience that when a man
makes an optimistic statement, such as that which Mr. Goldwyn has just
made to the press, he is getting set to back as a commercial enterprise the
subject of his optimism, and, if this is the case with him, I venture to predict
that he is getting set to jump off the ladder of success, and the flop with which
he will land will re-echo throughout the world.

Let me speak for a while of my own experience with television : although
my company, Philco, is known throughout the world for making as many
radio sets as any other six manufacturers combined, it is a little known fact
outside scientific circles that they have spent more money in the development
of television than in any other branch of their industry. Just what this
financial outlay means can be judged from the fact that whenever they pro-
duce a new model of the radio receiver it goes into production immediately,
usually in a dozen of their factories, and one of the latest models is now
being produced at the rate of 10,000 sets per day. Naturally, therefore, the
financial outlay made in research and experiments before launching a new
model is considerable. For over a year now we have been satisfied that we
can produce a perfect television receiver.

The thing which Mr. Goldwyn side-steps is the big problem of who is
going to put up the money for the building of television transmitters with
money scarce, enormous erection costs to face, the uncertainties about the
new aerial channel allotments for television, further engineering develop-
ments necessary to ensure that sight can be transmitted without distortion

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for the same distance as sound and not merely 5 or 100 miles as stated by
Mr. Go'ldwyn.

The transmission of ordinary sound broadcasts is, at present, in an awful
muddle with conferences of experts vainly trying to solve the problems of
national jealousies and keeping the broadcasting stations of various nations
from drowning out each other.

The B.B.C. could, for example, erect a television station at great cost
and Russia could erect a super-giant next door to them on the aerial wave-
length, capable of wrecking all their television transmissions. This they
have done with the new 500 kw. giant station which is next door to the
Daventry National.

With all these things to consider it will be at least 18 months before any-
sane financier can be interested in television.

Now, as regards a good television receiver for home use, my estimate
is that when they do come on the market they will start at somewhere between
£350 and £500 each.

Television will come, to be sure, but it must first work out these many
problems, entirely without any high pressure promotion jolts. If Mr.
Goldwyn is getting ready to back a television venture, thinking that he
knows more than the people who have spent a fortune experimenting with it,
including my company and others, this is his own affair. If he wants to
lose his shirt — well it is his own shirt. In the meantime, however, the
publication of his optimistic views is doing an incalculable injury to both
the cinema and radio industries.

The members of the cinema industry, being accustomed to clever Mr.
Goldwyn's many successes will hesitate before embarking on new ventures
and this pursuing itself in a vicious circle will, incidentally, throw many
people out of work.

It will harm the radio industry in that every prospective purchaser of
a new set who read the article is going to get the idea that television is right
here on the doorstep, and, thus the sale of radio sets will decrease.

Why drag these red herrings across the trail ?

Three years ago the American newspapers had Philco show them some
of the things they had done with Television, and then a story was spread
over the front pages of every daily newspaper from the Atlantic to the
Pacific coasts, that television would be on the market in two* or three months.
This caused the failure of a number of small manufacturers and dealers.
Philco's statement that it would be at least five years before television would
be a practical home consideration, and probably longer, received, as most
other unoptimistic but truthful statements, mere two or three paragraphs on
the inside page. That was three years ago and I think that we can look
forward to better radio programmes with clearer reception, and better motion
pictures, for the next five years without any interruption from television.

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203

THE CENSORSHIP IN PORTUGAL

" It seems indeed that the institution of censorship was created only to
sustain that which works against the cinema and to leave in peace all that
which could justify scrutiny — much as one must admit the idea of a legal
" control " in the domain of art."

These are George Altman's words. They are the beginning of a
remarkable chapter from his book, Ca, c'est du Cinema, in which he takes
up arms against the censorship, attacking it with all his strength.

In Portugal this official institution is no more intelligent and no> less
cunning and stupid that it is elsewhere. And if, for instance, we have seen
on the Portuguese screens such Soviet masterpieces as Mother and Old and
New — forbidden in many other lands — this fact must not atone for the
erroneous and stupid decisions of the Portuguese cinematographic censorship
authorities.

As in other places and circumstances, when to find a calm intelligence
and an honest and clear spirit might reasonably be expected, up comes a
host of prejudices and incompetent judgments. One hears stories of this
nature : The Director of the censorship inspection questions two inspectors
about a picture he has not himself seen for some reason. " It's perfectly
alright," they tell him.

" But ... is it not true that the film is about Russia ? There are no
revolutions or anything like that?"

" Yes," the others say, " but of no importance."

" What? ... Of no importance, you say ! . . . You have seen a film
about a Russian subject and you have let it gO' by without cuts ? . . . Please,
gentlemen ! You must cut some bit, mustn't you ? . . . Well, go on !"

So something has to be removed, more or less at hazard, and thus we
are reminded they are there for something.

Recently the Portuguese censors made two decisions which would have
caused certain trouble if the papers had been at liberty to state what they
think. But the press is likewise muzzled.

Firstly they forbade the French picture A Nous la Liberte by Rene Clair.
They found a political excuse. Of course! But another tale passes from
mouth to mouth. It appears that the director of a certain theatre signed a
contract to show the film, paving a large sum for it, but daunted by what
he distinguished as lack of commercial appeal, and as it was already too late
to refuse the picture, a whisper in the ear of influential people of the censor-
ship department, and the trick was done !

Is it true ? Sometimes these tales are not only tales !

Some months ago Les Gaites de VEscadron was also forbidden in
Portugal. Everybody knows that Tourneur, the director, " took the liberty
of ridiculing the military profession." Tourneur, the routine craftsman of
the big interests ! But the ban comes from a country which is under a military
dictatorship. . . .

Alves Costa.

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MISCASTING DIRECTORS

Welford Beaton, who has appeared again on the fringe of filmdom with
his Hollywood Spectator, has churned up the thought page by suggesting
that directors should be cast for stories just as carefully as actors are cast
for roles. Which goes all the way to show how far this bad system has
gone. No two pictures a director tackles should be alike. A director should
find in each story the mental stimulation for entirely new presentation. The
truth being — that it is much harder to be a film director than it is. Otherwise,
photograph the stars in their poses and fix them, via the Dunning Process,
into any background needed or suitable groupings.

O. B.

NOTES FROM AMERICA.

At this writing, dinosaurs are running rampant amid the incredible pile of stone,
steel and glass that is Radio City — and where King Kong, that ne plus ultra of the
diseased American movie mind is completing (we hope) the cycle of the trick film started
by Melies, for the edification of those whose idea of entertainment is synonymous with
saying " Boo !" in the dark. " King Kong — Or How Beauty Laid The Beast Low — it's
Stucolerrific ! " (This latter word was coined from three others — stupendous, colossal,
terrific — by the press agents). Children will not like it because of its unwholesomeness :
and if they do, their parents are to be censured for having made them susceptible to its
patent absurdities.

Those of us who relish Gulliver's Travels hope that Karl Freund will not make
just another trick film out of Swift's deathless satire. Surely there is some creative
imagination left in the man who photographed The Last Laugh and Variety, though
Freund's work until now in Hollywood could have been duplicated by half a dozen others.
But the idea of those delightful countries of Brobdingnag, Liliput and Houyhnhnms on
the screen is decidedly welcome — and it's been the best news since the rumor that Walt
Disney, the creator of the inimitable Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony cartoons was
planning to do Alice In Wonderland with Mary Pickford as the only human player.
All the characters in Alice's dream — the Mad Hatter, the Doormouse, the King and
Queen, etc., are to be animated from Disney's drawings.

Lubitsch, who can always be counted on to do something unusual, and do that
thing well, is toying with the possibility of filming The Czarina, which served him so
well as a silent vehicle for Pola Negri (known as Forbidden Paradise), some years ago.
The surprise comes in his selection of Mae West as the czarina. This buxom and
beateous lady has made a name for herself in roles delineating the seamier side of
American underworld life, as courtesan-de-luxe. As Catherine the Great she should
find the dramatic role worthy of her, and with the sly Teuton of Hollywood behind the
camera, the result should be something worth going miles to see. (It is interesting to
note that Lubitsch rejected Noel Coward's Design for Living, a raging hit on the stage
in New York with the Lunts, as not being suitable motion picture material). But Mae
West as the indefatigable Catherine of Russia — there's a theme for you !

The sanctimonious Hays organization, which sees to it that the America movie does
not soil its bib and tucker, has already taken some of the sting out of Gabriel over the
White House, a rather subversive and invidious film to be made at this time. Dealing
with a machine politician who becomes President of the United States and who becomes
mentally deranged in an automobile accident, it shows how the " deranged " Presi-
dent, as a result of his condition, immediately institutes wide reforms in banking, inter-
national relations and other vital fields. Under his influence, the world's gold supply
is assembled on an island off the coast of England, and measures are taken to form a
brotherhood of nations. There is considerable propaganda about foreign debts and the
honor of European nations. It was all a little disturbing and now that it has been
made considerably less so, it will be released.

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205

Not having learned his lesson from experience, Theodore Dreiser has sold Jennie
Gerhardt to Paramount to film' with Sylvia Sydney in the title role. Why Paramount
should lavish any more care on Jennie Gerhardt than it did on An American Tragedy,
no one professes to know, unless the director or supervisor also becomes suddenly
" deranged," like the President in Gabriel over the White House, and actually films
the story as it was written. The choice of Sylvia Sydney as Jenny is perfect, however,
if we want to reach for straws of comfort so early. . .

And by the time this appears, Marlene Dietrich will have appeared in her last
American picture for some time, Song of Songs, directed by Mamoulian, the brilliant
young Armenian. There was much dissent before the filming. Dietrich didn't have
Sternberg and the two were like Damon and Pythias on the " lot." There was a har-
mony between director and star that Dietrich, for one, didn't like to see broken. But
the movie moguls compromised and supplanted Fredric March with Brian Aherne (at
Miss Dietrich's request) and work went on. The film promises to be among the
most interesting of the year. (Buchowetzki filmed this old Sudermann story years ago
with Pola Negri. They called it Lily of the Dust, then. Maybe, the movies have grown
up since then . . )

But all American movie news pales into insignificance with the report that Eisen-
stein's great sociological film of Mexico has been cut down to some 8,000 feet by Sol
Lesser, a distributor of vapidly popular " travel " films, and will be released with a
musical score by Hugo Reisenfeld as not very much more than a scenic ! Que Viva
Mexico ! Eisenstein has called his film. Thunder Over Mexico Sol Lesser is calling his
version. There you have the difference — one1 an affirmation of life— the other its
denial ....

H. G. Weinburg.

BOOK REVIEWS

City Without A Heart, Anon. (Heinemann 7/6).

We feel that part of the philosophers flurry arises because he is
attempting to frame profound thoughts with a vocabulary made current in
everyday use. For instance" the solipsist says that green is not a property
of the leaf but a sensation which we experience on looking at the
leaf. Remove all the sense impressions, says the solipsist, and nothing of
the object will remain. But doesn't he really mean that he hasn't a word
for what remains ? Wouldn't a writer, who was also a creator of language
like James Joyce or Theo Rutra or A. Lincoln Gillespie, Jnr., be able to
invent the word in an inspiration flash and save all the discussion ?

Anyway, our novelists have not invented the words for the white centre
core of Hollywood. City Without A Heart makes fun of the Hollywood
film magnates but uses their own lingo to do so !

O. B.

Death While Swimming. By Oswell Blakeston, with illustrations by Len
Lye. (Bhat. 61, Southwark Park Road, London, S.E.16. 2/-.)
Blakeston is so professionally elusive that there is excuse if his book of
poems is taken as document. Because you may escape from words, but less
often from rhythm, which accompanies unnoticed and trailing round
oblivious ankles. This detective work one cannot pretend to be criticism

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exactly, but it is a necessary preliminary to criticism (even if usually the

rough-working is kept back) because it is on the results of such analysis —

why he wrote this, or how he came to write this, or who went first, or what

will happen afterwards — that judgment can be based, if judgment becomes

very important after understanding, which in itself is an act of criticism.

We know the film Blakeston by this time, or we don't quite know.

Even O.B. fans have had, from time to time, to change their direction.

Because it was obvious he was up to something, and just what he is up to

naturally an artist doesn't bother to say when he can point to this and that

and say : " Why, of course, this and that."

Each morning I walk in the valley of that country
Finding the night still under low leaves
I would spend my days fashioning hinges for new feeling
Replacing rusty latches for old expression

That is what we find out from his poems that he is up to. He says it
clearly enough now, and all else that has gone before (Close Up, stuff, Few
are Chosen, etc.) shift a little into a more direct focus.

Artists aren't always, of course, doing what they say they are doing,
but there are here certainly new hinges which' only occasionally (rather too
" patent ") break down. Or we haven't perhaps the knack of working them.
There are levers I haven't been able to work — a poem beginning : —

Wax hands on slabs of glass
Are Boredom's infinite )

but I have got the next poem to open successfully : —

Marked a red star on my calendar

which includes, if we are choosing, my " favourite lines " : —

Thus turning to star dial for red time
Long vision with its multiples

and that is why I think this one is perhaps the most successful poem. Which

you may think a biased judgment, if a frank one, suspecting a reason. The

best, I should add, " of poems of that sort," for not all penetrate the " valley

of that country."

For there is here too another Blakeston, revealed sometimes in his
stories, which, however, objectified, dramatised, could leave doubt. But in
verse, with its person-revealing rhythm, intensity of emotion comes up.
Which intensity is a dangerous thing in these days of sophistication, satiri-
fication and so on. But it is that which is here, making these poems more
than the polite album pieces which so many clever people nowadays do
quite well.

There is one beginning : —
You say

Live on while I'm away

As if it were not death to be without you

which is quite simple and Shakespearian (W. " Sonnet " Shakespeare) and
even runs to a regular iambic beat — a give-away hastily corrected elsewhere.
A give-away in the sense that in these items which mostly come first in the

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207

book the poetry-making has not always been adequate to the emotion (by a
poet, but not especially by O.B.). It is the smaller-sized, the more rarified
sensations which have more successfully become words, or perhaps one
should say " become through words." But these more explicit poems are
an insurance that the time, elsewhere, is not wasted.

Not knowing, therefore, which is echt Blakeston, these or those, there
is excuse for the epithet " elusive." Not that either manifestation is
necessarily pseudo-Blakeston — but there are directions one takes later which
reveal what previous roads have been main or bye.

Nor would this book be all we expected without the signature of fun,
of turning back and smiling.

Heart Blood that you may put in a small glass with smoky lettering on the

pantry shelf

I would let flow the hair of the Night to gently tickle your skin

Light will return and place a shoe and stocking on my foot

Smiles which retreat and throw up a protective smoke-screen for sensitiveness.

Without extra charge you may get a book unusually produced by Jones,

and illustrations by Len Lye which make protozoic fun, or are the Micky

cartoons of the cock-eyed bacteriological world. On the cover a subliminal

or larval cockolorum lets out four several doodle-do's, and you may care for

the centipede on page 18 presenting laurel wreath to exploding star.

R. B.

Filmbiicher fur alle edited by Kraszna-Krausz 4. " Filmtricks und
Trickfilme " von A. Stiiler Verlag von Wilhelm Knapp, Halle (Saale).

RM 3.20

Trickfilms have been dealt with in a chapter of one of the previous
numbers of the " Filmbiicher fiir alle " ; now a special small volume has
been written on that subject, going into further details. But, according
to the aim of these series, it is limited to the methods which can be applied
by the amateur using a simple camera and primitive accessory equipment
of his own making. You will find in it instructions for the different possi-
bilities of making titles and subtitles, growing, jumping, creeping titles,
moving designs, fading, shadows, etc., etc. As usual the text is supported
by examples and illustrated by a rich number of designs and photograph's.

P.S. — After these lines had been written I had another look at the
booklet, just before I wanted to put it back into the book-shelf. And among
the " examples which support the text " I found one that I had not per-
ceived at first sight. The discovery does not alter my opinion about the
book concerning thei film-tricks, of course, but I should like to give a verbal
translation of the passage, for it represents a rather good example for the
trend, even of technical books, in latest Germany (the volume was pub-
lished in Mid-March) :

Page 64. "... Now another and last example for forming a design
in sections. It refers to an amateur-documentary film Mutilated Germany,

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by the author. The outline of the map of Germany in 1914 was cut out in
white paper, pasted on a large sheet of brown paper, and this model was
exposed for two seconds. Then the separated territories, beginning with
Alsace-Lorraine and ending with the Corridor, were designed as black spots
into the area of the Reich, and every newly entered spot was exposed for
1-2 seconds. Finally the word " Never " was pasted across the picture of
the mutilated Germany and again the mechanism of the camera worked for
one second. In the projection you first see the light outline of the former
Reich. Then, in quick succession, the many wounds that have been torn
in Germany's body by the forcible peace of Versailles, and finally the
protest in which all the Germans are united."

Film, by Rudolf Arnheim. Faber and Faber. 15/-.

Mr. Arnheim's book, in its original German edition, has already been
reviewed in our columns. English readers will find it a welcome edition
to their library and it may particularly be commended for its analysis of the
bias in contemporary commercial films in the section entitled The Mass-
Produced Film. With some of its criticisms manv will disagree, but the
author knows his subject thoroughly and has given a far more comprehen-
sive account of cinematography than most of the recently published books.

It is, however, a little discouraging to think that although so many of
the critics of cinema understand the film thoroughly, the grip of the com-
mercial producer increases rather than decreases. The barrier to real pro-
gress, the cost of the raw materials and rent of sound equipment, has
stopped the excellent small groups who turned out experimental pictures,
under the old silent film conditions. It is something for the enthusiast that
he can study in this volume opinions on, and suggestions for, sound film
technique but it could be wished that the matter of bringing the costs to a
practical level for the small societies, had been noted.

The illustrations are well chosen and it is certainly one of the most
important volumes issued to date on the cinema.

Film, No. 1, Spring, 1933.

This is a new quarterly, published in July, October, January and April,
at four shillings for the year or one shilling each issue. It is edited by B.
Braun, with Orlton West as assistant editor, and the editorial and publish-
ing office is at 5, Joubert Studios, Jubilee Place, Chelsea, London, S.W.

The first issue, of twenty-six pages, contains articles which reveal
definitely the policy of the magazine, summarised in the words of the editor
— " Rather than attempt to destroy a sensation-seeking public, we wish to
create a new one. This second public has, in the past, remained silent ; now
it is hoped it will speak. Film is not going to devote a certain amount of
incidental space to good cinema, but is going to be entirely devoted" to the
film as an art. We shall seek a film-form and attempt to solve problems
which prevent a realisation of that film-form."

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209

Among the contributors is Robert Fairthorne, whose article in this
issue will probably inspire readers to seek out his article on The Principles
of the Film in this new quarterly.

Orlton West explains the meaning and different methods of Montage.
There are other articles well worth reading, and reviews of films, in all of
which is discernible an honesty of purpose and freedom from commercialism
which will make Film a welcome addition to cinema literature.

J' Accuse! (Published by the World Alliance for Combating Anti-Semitism.

British Empire Headquarters, Salomon House, 33, St. James's Street,

London, S.W.I. 1/-.)
Germany Puts the Clock Back, by Edgar Ansel Mowrer. John Lane. 7/6.

Readers of Close Up who wish to understand the present position of
Germany would do well to read the above books, J' Accuse prints extracts
from The Times, The Manchester Guardian and other responsible sources,
which give an accurate representation of what has happened and is happening
to the German Jews. Messages of sympathy from members of the church,
legal and medical professions, and others in England are included and there
are interesting photographs.

Mowrer in his volume, gives an excellent and comprehensive account of
anti-Semitism and of the different factors that produced the present German
revolution. It must be remembered that in 1920, German books were not
read nor the films shown in other countries of Europe, except Austria. In
the twelve years up to the end of 1932, writers such as Heinrich Mann, and
directors such as G. W. Pabst, had opened libraries and cinemas all over
the world to German books and films. In one day their work was destroyed,
and they themselves, forced into exile. Why this has happened is explained
clearly and concisely in Germany Puts the Clock Back.

An alteration in German foreign policy will not affect the position of the
exiles nor of the many political prisoners. It is to be hoped therefore, and
for our own safety, that the above volumes have as wide a circulation as
possible.

Making Better Movies, by Arthur L. Gale and Russell C. Holslag. New
York : Amateur Cinema League. For members only.
This paper-bound volume of 205 pages is a manual of the technique
(hardly of the art) of the sub-standard (8mm and 16 mm) film-making.
Chapter I is instruction in camera-handling, from which the book goes on
to treat of the mechanism of editing and splicing, types of lenses, lights and
reflectors, slow motion, koda colour into " avant-garde " amateurism,
montage, etc., concluding with advice on " How to Use the Amateur Cinema
League." The book should be a valuable primer, very complete in its data,
to the miniaturist, especially if he utilizes only the authoritative mechanical
advice, and avoids the occasional thematic suggestions and the conception
of devices as " tricks." H. A. P.

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MANIFESTO ON EISEXSTEIN'S MEXICAN FILM
Printed in its entirety ; prepared by Experimental Cinema.
" THE XOTIOX OF ANYONE DOING THE MONTAGE OF
EISENSTEIN'S FILM EXCEPT EISENSTEIN HIMSELF IS OUT-
RAGEOUS TO ALL THE CANONS OF ART. NO ECONOMIC
SITUATION JUSTIFIES SUCH AN AESTHETIC CRIME."— Waldo
Frank.

" OF THE GRANDEUR OF THE UNDAMAGED ORIGINAL
(THE LAST SUPPER) WE CAN ONLY GUESS . . . DREADFUL
RESTORATIONS WERE MADE BY HEAVY-HANDED
MEDDLERS; SOME IMBECILE DOMINICAN MONKS CUT A
DOOR THROUGH THE LOWER CENTRAL PART ; NAPOLEON'S
DRAGOONS STABLED THEIR HORSES IN THE REFECTORY
AND THREW THEIR BOOTS AT JUDAS ISCARIOT ; MORE
RESTORATIONS AND MORE DISFIGUREMENTS. . ."—Thomas
Craven, MEN OF ART.

TO OUR READERS

In the 4th issue of EXPERIMEXTAL CIXEMA, published last year,
a great deal of space was devoted to a film epic entitled " QUE VIVA
MEXICO!," which S. M. Eisenstein, the renowned Soviet director was
making at that time. There were two articles on the film, one of them an
authorized interpretation by Agustin Aragon Leiva, Eisenstein's special
assistant throughout the production. In addition, there were ten pages of
still reproductions, which, to quote Laurence Stallings, gave a " foretaste "
of the film. The editors of EXPERIMEXTAL CIXEMA were more than
merely enthusiastic about it : they had been given a copy of the scenario
by Eisenstein himself and they were convinced that " QUE VIVA
MEXICO !" would materialize, as no film had ever done, the highest
principles of the cinema as a fine art.

There is now being released on the world market a movie called
"THUNDER OVER MEXICO," which is what it is : a fragmentary and
entirely conventional version of Eisenstein's original majestic conception.
The story behind this commercialized version is without doubt the greatest
tragedy in the history of films and one of the saddest in the history of art.
It represents the latest instance of a film director, in this case a genius of
the first rank, forfeiting a masterpiece in a hopeless struggle against sordid
commercial interests.

WE DECRY THIS ILLEGITIMATE VERSION OF " QUE VIVA
MEXICO!" AXD DEXOUXCE IT FOR WHAT IT IS— A MERE
VULGARIZATION OF EISENSTEIN'S ORIGINAL CONCEPTION
PUT FORTH IX HIS XAME IX ORDER TO CAPITALIZE ON HIS
RENOWN AS A CREATIVE ARTIST. WE DENOUNCE THE
CUTTING OF "QUE VIVA MEXICO!" BY PROFESSIONAL
HOLLYWOOD CUTTERS AS AN UNMITIGATED MOCKERY OF
EISENSTEIN'S INTENTION. WE DENOUNCE " THUNDER

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211

OVER MEXICO "ASA CHEAP DEBASEMENT OF " QUE VIVA
MEXICO !"

As all students of the cinema are aware, Eisenstein edits (" mounts ")
his own films. Contrary to the methods generally employed by professional
directors in Hollywood, Eisenstein gives final form to the film in the cutting-
room. The very essence of his creative genius, and of his oft-quoted theory
of the cinema, consists in the editing of the separate shots after all the scenes
have been photographed. Virtually every film director of note has testified,
time and again, to the revolutionary consequences of Eisenstein's montage
technique on the modern cinema, and every student of the cinema knows
how impossible it is for anyone except Eisenstein to edit his pictures.

" THUNDER OVER MEXICO " HAS NOT BEEN EDITED BY
EISENSTEIN AND YET IS BEING EXPLOITED IN TOTO AS HIS
ACHIEVEMENT. THE EDITING OF " THUNDER OVER
MEXICO " IS NOT EISENSTEIN'S MONTAGE.

Out of approximately 200,000 feet of film shot by Eisenstein in Mexico,
a picture of some 7,000 feet, cut according to conventional Hollywood
standards, has been produced — an emasculated fragment of Eisenstein's
original scenario which provided for six interrelated episodes, in which were
included a dramatic prologue depicting the life of ancient Yucatan and an
epilogue foreshadowing the destinies of the Mexican people. What has
happed to this material ?

Eisenstein's original prologue, which was intended to trace the sources
and primitive manifestations of Mexican culture, thus projecting the most
vital cultural forms among the Aztecs, Toltecs and the Mayans, has been
converted into a pseudo-travelogue.

Worse than this is the fate of Eisenstein's original epilogue, which was
intended to establish the timeless continuity of types from ancient Yucatan
to modern Mexica, and which was meant to anticipate the revolutionary
urge dormant in the descendants of those ancient races. Under the guidance
of Eisenstein's backers, who have never from the start shown a due con-
sciousness of what the film is all about, the epilogue has now been converted
into a cheerful ballyhoo about " a new Mexico," with definite fascist
implications.

The remaining mass of material, consisting of more than 180,000 feet,
is in danger of being sold piecemeal to commercial film concerns.

Thus, Eisenstein's great vision of the Mexican ethos, which he had
intended to present in the form of a " film symphony," has been destroyed.
Of the original conception, as revealed in the scenario1 and in Eisenstein's
correspondence with the editors of EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA, nothing
remains in the commercialized version except the photography, which no
amount of mediocre cutting could destroy. As feared by Eisenstein's friends
and admirers, the scenario, written in the form of prose poem, merely con-
fused the professional Hollywood cutters. The original meaning of the film
has been perverted by reproduction of the whole to a single unconnected

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romantic story which the backers of the picture are offering to please
popular taste. The result is " THUNDER OVER MEXICO " : a " Best-
Picture-of-tbe-Year, " Hollywood special, but in the annals of true art, the
saddest miscarriage on record of a high and glorious enterprise.

For more than a year Eisenstein's friends and admirers in the United
States have been appealing to his backers, represented by Upton Sinclair,
to save the picture and to preserve it so that eventually Eisenstein might
edit it. A campaign was even launched to raise $100,000 to purchase the
material for Eisenstein. Finally, a Committee for Eisenstein's Mexican
Film was formed, consisting of the editors of EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
and including Waldo Frank, Lincoln Kirstein, Agustin Aragon Leiva and
J. M. Valdes-Rodriguez. All these efforts, however, were unsuccessful.
It is now too late to stop the release of " THUNDER OVER MEXICO."

BUT THERE IS ONE ALTERNATIVE LEFT TO THOSE WHO
WISH TO SAVE THE ORIGINAL NEGATIVE OF " QUE VIVA
MEXICO!": THE PRESSURE OF WORLD-WIDE APPEAL TO
THE CONSCIENCE OF THE BACKERS MAY INDUCE THEM TO
REALIZE THE GRAVITY OF THE SITUATION AND GIVE THE
FILM TO EISENSTEIN.

The purpose of this manifesto, therefore, is twofold : (1) to orient and
forewarn public taste on the eve of the arrival of a much misrepresented
product, "THUNDER OVER MEXICO";. and (2) to incite public
opinion to bring pressure to bear upon the backers in a last effort to save
the complete negative, both cut and uncut, for Eisenstein.

LOVERS OF FILM ART! STUDENTS OF EISENSTEIN!
FRIENDS OF MEXICO ! SUPPORT THIS CAMPAIGN TO SAVE
THE NEGATIVE OF " QUE VIVA MEXICO!" DO NOT BE
SATISFIED WITH ANY SUBSTITUTES FOR EISENSTEIN'S
ORIGINAL VISION ! MAKE THIS CAMPAIGN AN UNFORGET-
TABLE PRECEDENT THAT WILL ECHO THROUGHOUT FILM
HISTORY, A WARNING TO ALL FUTURE ENEMIES OF THE
CINEMA AS A FINE ART ! !

SEND LETTERS OF PROTEST AND APPEAL TO UPTON
SINCLAIR, 614 NORTH ARDEN DRIVE, BEVERLY HILLS, CALI-
FORNIA, AND COMMUNICATE IMMEDIATELY WITH THE
COMMITTEE FOR EISENSTEIN'S MEXICAN FILM, c/o EXPERI-
MENTAL CINEMA, INTERNATIONAL FILM QUARTERLY, 1625
NORTH VINE STREET, HOLLYWOOD. CALIFORNIA.

EDITORS OF EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA.

FOREIGN FILM JOURNALS : PLEASE COPY ! IMMEDIATE
PROPAGANDA ESSENTIAL! FILM SOCIETIES: DUPLICATE
THIS MANIFESTO ! DISTRIBUTE TO YOUR MEMBERS !
WRITE FOR EXTRA COPIES !

DO NOT ALLOW THIS COWARDLY ASSASSINATION OF
EISENSTEIN'S MEXICAN FILM !

CLOSE UP

213

We print below an extract from a private letter from Berlin as we think
it will be of interest to our readers :

The general film situation in Germany is more interesting than ever.
The government's decided move to the right has strengthened the opposi-
tion and a great struggle is bound to come. Of course this present moment
is not encouraging, for the actual power of censorship is with the govern-
ment, but the restrictions are so stupid that they cannot last indefinitely.
Artists have been forced to band together and unite for defence. Some who
have been unwilling previously to work except alone are now anxious to
co-operate with fellow workers rather with commercial firms.

From a commercial point of view things are disastrous. Many big
companies have failed. Those which have survived have managed matters
very cleverly. They have done nothing without a purpose and that pur-
pose is easily discerned. Three years ago films were made, apparently
of a free and democratic tendency but always one scene was included to
keep pre-war feelings alive. They rejected problematical and serious
pictures entirely from their programmes, under the pretext that a suffering
people needed to be cheered up and amused. In this way people were not
allowed to reflect or face the actual situation. Historical films were pro-
duced, often in themselves excellently made (and this is the most danger-
ous!) but with the historical truth spoiled or distorted. Students can
judge the truth of history text books but simple people are convinced by
good acting that anything they see on the screen is true. They go home
and swear by what they have seen : their historical heroes may have been
doing dreadful and incredible things but because they have seen them,
they will never be forgotten. Besides this, a great deal of " sugar " is
produced, to poison the world with a false type of happiness.

Last summer changes were announced. A sort of Hays programme
was published in which it was stated that when things were better in
Germany ( !) they might dare to show more serious matters. At present the
masses must be encouraged, so stories must concern young and intelligent
and poor but virtuous people, who struggle with luck against enormous
difficulties to win through to a happy end ! In order to achieve successful
results, when a scenario is prepared it is sent round to all provincial film
agencies and theatre owners for criticism and each remark these enlightened
people make is then discussed, until at last the scenario is so altered no one
makes objection any more. Of course this method checks all development.

The only obvious move which may be noted is that nationalistic
tendencies are shown without a mask.

Equally openly has war been declared against art and individuality,
as enemies of commercial success. One film director whose pictures have
been shown over Europe, was rejected with the admission that though
these films were excellent, they could not " be cleaned from the reproach
of being artistic." And at the moment it is impossible to show art. Good
actors are tried perhaps once. Should their films, by reason of the

214

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scenarios being' treated in the way just described, fail of immediate success,
they also are ranked as artists and may never, never, never be employed in
the studios again. So you may understand what a condition the film world
here is in.

It is said, however, that German Universal is doing interesting work.
They produced The Rebel. It is marvellously made with really amazing
photography. They are also doing work in the ice regions of the north and
the geographical results of their expedition are said to be most interesting.

Berlin : February, 1933.

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PART I INTRODUCTION

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III MAKING OF A FILM

IV FILM SUBJECTS
V SOUND FILM

VI THE FAULTLESS FILM

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PART I INTRODUCTION
II FILM AND NATURE

III MAKING OF A FILM

IV FILM SUBJECTS

V SOUND FILM
VI THE FAULTLESS FILM

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Contents

The Actor's Work. V. I. Pudovkin
Talkie Diseases of French Cinema. J. Lenauer .
Films and Values. O.B. . .
Manifesto of " Experimental Cinema "
Open letter " Thunder Over Mexico." A. B. Maugard
New Films By Deslaw. J. Burford & O. Blakeston
Fiction or Nature. Marianne Moore
" Lot in Sodom." H. G. Weinberg
Film Morals. Clifford Howard
Scottsboro. Nancy Cunard
Pseudomorphic Film. O.B.
Comment and Review :

Sound City of Shepperton ; Filmwork in Vienna ; /\libis ; Book Review

PAGE

227
235
243
248
256
258
260
266
271
274
279
290

London Correspondent :
Paris Correspondent :
Geneva Correspondent :
Hollywood Correspondent :
Moscow Correspondent :
Vienna Correspondent :

Robert Herring
Jean Lenauer
F. Chevalley
Clifford Howard
P. Attasheva
Trude Weiss

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' The Deserter." V. I. Pudovkin.
' he Deserteur." V. I. Pudovkin.

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Vol. X. No. 3 September, 1933

THE ACTOR'S WORK: FILM v. STAGE

Translated by Vera Sonutchinsky under the supervision of Marie Seton

By V. I. Pudovkin

The problem of the difference between stage and screen acting is an old
one. It has been raised again and again and discussed from varied points of
view, but, fundamentally, it has never been precisely and clearly solved.
I should like to start by demonstrating the fundamental distinction between
stage and cinema work and then, on the basis of this distinction, to examine
the respective methods of acting in the two art-forms. I shall take as basis
for this distinction the difference between the respective techniques. By
" technique " I mean the sum total of technical means at the disposal of the
theatre or film worker enabling him to convey to his audience the series of
impressions that constitutes, in effect, the work of art being presented on stage
or screen.

Let us analyse the theatre first. The stage is a unit of real space of given
size, and the actors move upon it in accordance with the natural laws of real
space. The audience is separated from the stage by a real and constant distance.
In order that all that is shown or spoken upon the stage should reach the eyes
or ears of the spectator sufficiently clearly and comprehensibly (which is most
essential), this distance between the stage and the audience must be overcome.
The necessity to overcome this distance is the paramount technical convention,
inherent in the theatre, and it determines a host of special methods peculiar
on the stage. Supposing, for example, an actor gives upon the stage a slight
" start," this if unemphasized will not and cannot be perceptible to the specta-
tors in the auditorium. The actor must either " give a start " with an
exaggeratedly vigorous movement, or substitute for the " start " some other
and more obvious gesture expressing sudden fright. In this connection it is of
especial interest to recall the Japanese theatre, which presents, in my view,
one of the purest forms of genuine stagecraft. I have seen a Japanese actor
" trembling with fury," do so in so emphasized a manner that the trembling
became a peculiar convulsive swinging to and fro. A motion which, it should
be noted, in its environment of the general course and construction of the play,
produced an extremely vivid and pertinent effect. Exactly as with gesture,

so must words on the stage be specially emphasized ; they require a special
technical mode of enunciation both in the field of increase of the mere volume
of sound, and in the field of increase of emotional expressiveness. Everybody
knows the so-called stage whisper, which actuaUy in no wise resembles the
natural whisper of real life. In real life people whisper in order not to be
overheard by strangers, whereas on the stage actors whisper precisely in order
that strangers may overhear them as distinctly as possible. I have deliberately
chosen examples as obvious as these in order the more clearly to demonstrate
this inevitable demand for conventional reinforcement made upon the actor
by the purely technical considerations of the stage. As a matter of fact, this
conventional emphasis and reinforcement is not required only of the actor. It
is required equally of the decors and setting, indeed of anything that in any
way forms part of the performance. Noting this in passing, however I must
repeat that the essential point is the technical nature of the theatre requires
reinforcement of this kind to be done by the actor personally. He himself
must be capable of exaggerating his gesture to effect sufficient clarity. He
himself must be capable of delivering his lines with sufficient sound volume and
sufficiently clear emotional expressiveness. He has to undergo special training

CLOSE UP

229

in voice production and special schooling in the translation of natural gesture
into the conventional gesture of the stage. Hence, obviously, the so-called
" naturalistic school " which holds that the stage should be " true to life " is
based fundamentally on an incorrect premise. It is the attempt to introduce into
the theatre material which it does not need and which, moreover, it is unable
to utilise. Realistic intonations of the voice, such as we hear in real life coming
from someone sitting about half-a-yard away from us, would be inaudible to
an audience in a theatre. Genuine china, richness of quality in the stuffs of
which costumes are made, are as little perceptible to anybody in the audience
as would be a natural good complexion in a member of the cast. To make
things expressive on the stage, one has to stress essentials, reject the superero-
gatory, emphasize contrasts, make special clothes, use special make-up.
And all these conventional alterations have to be made on the people themselves,
on the things themselves. On the stage real and natural things and people are
bound to be ineffective and inexpressive because they can be seen and heard
only imperfectly, or rather, because they become blurred by various ordinarily
invisible and inaudible details, easily perceived and segregated in real life,
but infallibly entangling the stage image. Try to imagine yourself meeting a
man for the first time and the two of you standing at opposite corners of the
street. It is scarcely likely that you would derive from him an impression
either vivid or thorough if he behaved as though he were standing next to you.

Let us now turn to a different side of the question. No work of art can be
conceived as existing except in conjunction with a spectator or auditor
" listening-in " to it, so to speak. And in the the course of its growth, of its
dialectical development, each art-form draws within its sphere of influence
an ever wider circle of " listeners-in." Art strives to be mass art, a tendency
that finds its personal expression in the striving of each artist towards recogni-
tion— fame. Even a cursory survey of the history of the theatre is sufficient
to show in it this tendency towards displaying a work of art to as numerous an
audience as possible. (This generalisation does not apply, of course, to the
decadent tendencies leading to intime aestheticism ; these tendencies are
essentially characteristic of degenerating social periods and never have played
nor ever will play a leading part in the history of art). Impromptu dances
and recitations became fixed for presentation at definite times and places to
attract larger audiences. Later the places where these performances were
given began to be arranged and equipped in such a way as to enable them to
be seen and heard by as large a number of people as possible: the advent of
the special theatre building. Next in its development theatrical art passed
from improvisation to fixed forms, making it possible to repeat a given per-
formance and consequently to present it to still more people. The Russian
theatre of today with its technical resources consists of a large number of
theatre units, geographically separated yet interconnected by railway, aero-
plane, post, telegraph, telephone, and is consequently capable of presenting
the same play almost simultaneously in different parts of the country to an
almost infinite number of people. The penetration of art into mass audiences
stands out as a patent phenomenon of its technical development. It becomes

230

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Count Almasy and an old Tibu
guide in " Nomads of the Desert "
by Ham Casparius.

Le comte Almasy et un vieux
guide tibou, dans " Nomads of the
Desert."

less and less necessary for the spectator to seek and visit a work of art, for the
work of art itself sets out to visit him.

Let us now return to see how this affects the work of the theatre actor.
We have shown above that the technique of the modern theatre involves
numerous repetitions of the same performance. In consequence the actor not
only has to create a given image, he has also to fix it in himself, so as to be able
to repeat its performance many times. Examine for a moment the main
features of his work. An actor is working on his part. He has to discover the
appropriate form for some given moment of his stage behaviour. It is obvious
that a man can in no circumstances reproduce something with which he is
utterly unfamiliar. A man who has never cried or seen anyone else cry could
not possibly cry either naturally or artificially. However complex the
character he is portraying, however fantastic or conventionalised its type,

CLOSE UP

231

the basic material he must utilise still remains real emotions, his own or those
he has observed or read of in other people. It may occur that in his search
for material an actor may force himself to cry, perhaps ask a colleague to
strike him a violent blow, in order to acquire genuine experience of anguish.
But remember, this is only the raw material, these real tears or real pain
are not in themselves sufficient, for the two reasons we have discussed. In
the first place, the external expression of these emotions has to be theatricalised,
i.e. exaggerated in a special way, to make it sufficiently expressive on the stage.
Secondly the form found, both external and internal, has to be fixed for its
numerous repetitions. While in the process of working on his part, an actor
trying to provoke in himself a given mood or reaction to sensation can concen-
trate and create the necessary environment of stimuli regardless of time or
space, it is impossible for him to do so during the actual performance. Con-
sequently the stage actor has to have a special training, a capacity for creating

232

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specialised, to a certain degree formalised, patterns which are in no sense
natural reactions to external stimuli, but a special modification of the material
provided by these real-life reactions. I foresee the objections here of manv
actors and actresses, who will insist that seven times a week they genuinelv
weep and become terrified on the stage, but to argue with them would be as
difficult as to argue with a child who, astride on a chair, is convinced that he is
riding horseback. The objective logic of the facts declares that the behaviour
of the actor on the stage is not a series of genuine reactions to genuine stimuli,
but a conventionally constructed formalised pattern. Let us now pass
gradually to the film.

Let us imagine that the theatre, in its ever increasing tendency to come
nearer to its mass audience, acquires new and extraordinary technical means.
Let us imagine that, in its tendency to embrace new material, new technique
and new possibilities, the theatre invents a means of overcoming the distance
that separates the audience from the stage. A cup of genuine china was value-
less on the stage because the only thing that could be perceived was its general
shape ; the characteristic delicacy of its texture, its design were alike
imperceptible. Now comes an inventor and invents a process by which the
audience can be automatically brought closer to the stage at any given moment.
The audience is no longer fixed. The constancy of the distance between it
and the stage, which previously conditioned the transformation of all material
in stage use from natural to specially conventionalised, vanishes. Imme-
diately an enormous amount of new material becomes available for
introduction to the stage. Real, or natural-seeming material was in no sense
bad in itself. It was simply unutilisable on the stage until its richness had
been theatrically schematised. But by this new technical discovery stage
and audience can automatically come together and this impossibility of using
the full richness of real material with its formerly barely perceptible details
disappears. Persons whispering can come close to the spectator, a hand
but slightly trembling can be set immediately before his eyes, he can hear
breathing or discern the flicker of an eyelash, he can distinguish a coat only
slightly shabby from one brand new — and draw the necessary conclusions.
Everyone has recognised, of course, in this ingenuous description of a stage
technically improved — the film, with its close-ups and its long-shots, the
angles of its set-ups and its camera panning or tracking round the scene or
person photographed. The naturalness, even reality, of the material photo-
graphed in a film is not a whim of a particular director's style, but the perfectly
logical development of an art in its embrace of ever richer and more abundant
material. Let us proceed further. In its striving to gain ever greater audiences, the
theatre invents new means of multiplication and repetition of its performances.
This again, the film achieves by its technique, fixing the performance once and
for all upon the negative that enables an almost unlimited number of positive
copies, and then showing these in numberless places again and again. The
mass audience of the cinema is infinitely greater than that of the theatre.
The new technical basis introduced by the cinema, that is, the enabling of
automatic fixation of the image of an emotional moment on a piece of film,

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Old Tibu Guide in " Nomads of the Desert " by Hans Casparius.
Vieux guide tibou dans " Nomads of the Desert " par Hans Casparius.

and composition in editing, whereby the inter-relations of these pieces are
governed, have fundamentally changed the character of the demands made
upon the " actor." (I have set the word in quotes because in its application
to the film it should be replaced by some more appropriate expression — I
prefer " human material "). In the first place, the whole necessity explained
at the beginning of this essay for an actor to employ a special technique of
exaggeration of sound and movement is now discarded. The work of emphasis
and of expressive treatment is taken over by the camera, in approaching or
receding, in altering its set-up. Secondly, all that has been said of the necessity
for the actor to seek and fix in himself the entire appropriate image — goes also
in the discard. The camera, too, takes on the work of fixing the emotional
moment ; the negative the work of preserving it ; and the work of constructing

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a complete emotional image from these moments is undertaken by the editing
and cutting. The film " actor " can resort to any means he pleases to provoke
in himself a genuine given mood or reaction, and he need no longer bother to
memorise it and fix it for subsequent manifold reproduction. In film a man can,
first and foremost, be as free as he pleases from the conventions imposed by
the technical basis of the stage. He can be entirely realistic. He is free
from the necessity of " acting " ; or " reincarnating," absolutely indispensable
upon the stage. He does not need the complicated special training necessary
for the stage actor. To be fit for film, a man needs only that the internal and
external characteristics of his real life personality shall be distinct and expres-
sive. All the rest is the job of the camera and the cutting.

An historical photograph from the Paramount News Reel of "Broadway Limited "
and " Royal Scot " on their way to the Chicago World Fair.

Cliche historique, pris du "Paramount News Reel," de " Broadzvay Limited "
et " Royal Scot " en route pour le " Chicago World Fair."

TALKIE DISEASES OF THE
FRENCH CINEMA

Newspapers publishing articles about the new era of French films, news-
papers publishing articles about the decline of the French cinema, newspapers
publishing statistics showing that the French cinemas have never been so
prosperous, newspapers publishing figures proving that the French cinema is
killed by foreign invasion, newspapers reproducing speeches of M. Delac, head
of the Chambre Syndicate de La Cinematographic Franfaise, back from New
York, and declaring that the quota law is going to disappear completely,
newspapers publishing speeches of M. Natan, head of the biggest French
company, asking for the exclusion of all foreign films for a year ; because
theatres are all showing foreign films, while exhibitors are already scared that
they won't have any films next season.

And the cinema, as we like it ?

The worst of it all is that all the things said in the different papers are true.
It all depends on the angle, from which one looks at the situation.

I, too, could give you figures here — but I won't. I don't like them. One
never knows where they come from and as soon as they are printed, everybody
believes that they are correct. And even if they are, what would be gained
by it ?

M. Natan complains of too many foreign films, but in most of his houses he
doesn't show French films, because he hasn't any. He doesn't tell either that
his whole production staff has been dismissed indefinitely and production in
his studios laid off, for a few months at least.

And Gaumont, the other big French Company has confined itself to dis-
tributing films (made by small independent firms) which, incidentally, are as
bad as possible.

Paramount, which used to turn out 60 French films a year (and they, too,
were incredibly bad) has closed its studios.

Braunberger, once a young and keen producer, gathering in around his
studio quite a few promising new cinema craftsmen, is now recovering from
an almost complete financial failure and since then has produced only Fir au
Flanc a military comedy — a cinematographical tragedy.

The independents, each day more numerous, produce French pictures !
Yes, but what ? The oldest and most outworn so-called stage hits of the last
two centuries. Nothing, nothing whatsoever, which has the slightest
connection with the problems and facts of our day !

The directors can't be blamed for all of it. They are only human beings and
as good work, intelligent work, is out of the question and as they need to work
for a living, they give in and accept nowadays almost any job. Neither they

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Marlene Dietrich in the Paramount Film " Song of Songs," directed by Rouben Mamoulian.
Marlene Dietrich dans le film Paramount, " Sotig of Songs" : regisseur Rouben Mamoulian.

Marlene Dietrich in the Paramount Film " Song of Songs," directed by Rouben Mamoulian.
Marlene Dietrich dans le film Paramount, " Song of Songs " : regisseur Rouben Mamoulian.

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nor the productions are wholly to blame — but the whole system . . .

There is Duvivier, who has given us this season three good pictures. I
mentioned already his Alio Paris : Ici Berlin. His second picture, Poil
de Carotte, had a few valuable things in it, but as a whole was a little too senti-
mental and too tearful. In spite of all this, it was one of the very few good
pictures of this poor season.

His third, La Tete d'un Homme, taken from a novel by Georges Simenon,
a sort of French Edgar Wallace, was an excellent picture. The adaptation
done by a young French scenarist, Louis Delapree, was splendid, and Duvivier
who knows how to direct, used his actors, Inkijinoff (of Storm over Asia),
Harry Baur and Rignault in the most competent way. It is a film with perfect
rhythm, and, except for the last ten minutes, an intelligently told story of a
mysterious crime.

Duvivier is the only real bright spot in this year of cinematic disgrace. He
is still young, doesn't speak of himself as a genius, and has worked continu-
ously for more than 13 years without telling journalists most of the time what's
wrong with the movies, gives credit to all his collaborators, without making a
pose of it. Do you understand why I think that he is a most sympathetic
director ?

There is, of course, also Rene Clair. His position is somewhat special.
Abroad he is recognized as the best French director, but in France he still has
to fight. Result : 14 Juillet, a weak story and the most competent work done
in a French studio. But we want him to direct a really good story, which his
producers won't accept. He is going — it appears — to direct his next picture
for London Films, the A. Korda company in London. Will Alexander Korda
be intelligent enough to let Rene Clair direct a good picture, a human story ?

Maurice Tourneur, perhaps the best craftsman in French movies, dis-
appointed us completely this year with a bad, old-fashioned melodrama,
Les Deux Orphelines and has just finished two short pictures.

In spite of the enthusiastic publicity, this fact clearly indicates the bad
standard of French movie politics. One of the most able directors confined
to inferior work ' Picture a man like Sternberg, Vidor, Mervyn Le Roy, or
Stroheim, doing shorts in Hollywood. I am quite sure that even the dangerous
nit-wits of Hollywood wouldn't dream of wasting their good directors on such
an inferior job.

Epstein, who hasn't worked much since arrival of the talkies, had to direct
L'Homme a L'Hispano, already done in a silent version, and the material is
still as bad as it was then.

L'Herbier, who has produced (as he knows) a few quite bad talkies, is now
shooting L'Epervier from a play by Francis de Croisset. It remains to be seen
whether that picture will restore the good opinion we had of him when he was
making silent films.

Gremillon who directed La Petite Lise, one of the strongest pictures
produced in the early days of the talkies, hasn't since then done anything worth

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mentioning. This very gifted director, whose skilful use of the camera we
always admired, is still looking for work. Will he find anything worthy of his
talent ?

Cavalcanti had a similar fate. He has worked quite regularly, but never,
since the talkies came, has he directed any picture, that was worthy of him.
They have been mostly adaptations of cheap farcical plays, the most uncine-
matographic material one could think of.

Now to the group of young French directors who hadn't produced very
much before the talkies came, but who had shown quite a few promising
qualities, in small jobs.

Georges Lacombe, for many years Clair's assistant, has directed various
films, but none of them the sort of job he desired. In speaking of his last
picture, La Femme Invisible, he said to me : "It appears that the public
hissed so much the other night, that the police had to clear out the cinema. I
am not surprised. I should have done the same had I not been the
director." Now, for the first time in his " directorial " life he has been given a
free hand in regard to his next film, of which he has written the scenario. But
I can't help being sceptical — I don't feel sure that none of his business-managers
will not ask for a " few unimportant changes," with the result that the whole
sense of the scenario will be ruined.

There is Marc Allegret. Last year, he directed Fanny, from the Marcel
Pagnol stage hit. The film, though not rich in cinematographic qualities, won
the first prize for the best French picture of the year.

One might imagine that all the producers would try to secure Marc Allegret
at once. Not at all. For in spite of the fact that he has turned out one
successful " commercial " picture, they mistrust him because he is young.
He is finally working on Lac Aux Dames, by Vicki Baum, and he had much
trouble in securing a financial backing for this venture.

Edmond T. Greville has been doing nothing but short pictures from
scenarios which are considered " very commercial " by his financial backers^
The result isn't too encouraging.

Claude Heymann, for a year with Ufa as French assistant, hasn't succeeded-
in persuading any French producer to give him a decent directorial job. There-
fore he prefers to carry on as an assistant in order not to ruin his reputation,
as he would inevitably have done if he had accepted any of the inferior jobs
which have been offered to him.

Pierre Chenal directed one talkie, Le Martyre de V Obese, a fairly successful
commercial picture. Has he since been given anything further of that kind ?
He certainly has not.

The brothers Prevert, of whose brilliant and intelligent farce, L' Affaire est
dans le Sac, I spoke a few months ago and which received the most enthusiastic
press notices ever given to a French picture, sit about in enforced idleness,,
waiting, waiting . . .

That is the grand tragedy of French Filmdon in 1933 : The young, able and

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Marlene Dietrich in "the Paramount Film "Song of Songs," directed by
Rouben Mamoidian.

Marlene Dietrich dans le film Paramount, " Song of Songs " : regisseur
Rouben Mamoidian.

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Marlene Dietrich in the Paramount Film " Song of Songs," directed by
Rouben Mamoulian

Marlene Dietrich dans le film Paramount, " Song of Songs " : regisseur
Rouben Mamoulian.

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intelligent directors and scenarists sit waiting. They'll have to wait, till they
cease to have any more original ideas.

French cinema offers this incredible paradox : There are quite a number of
good, healthy, talented men, who can't find any appropriate work just because
they have talent.

The " breaks " they got were never prepared try-outs, but lucky accidents.
And the young directois wait for a job, more and more disgusted with a crying
injustice. Because — while they wait in vain — the most incapable of the old
" routiniers " continue their undermining, dreadful work.

I don't see how anything can be changed. It would not be sufficient to
allow one of them to do sensible work, to help the French cinema. One
exception is not enough to drive through this dangerous imposse.

The public, the so patient public, is thoroughly " through " with French
films. And we see the incredible phenomenon of French patrons more and
more frequenting cinemas where foreign pictures are shown. Not only do
those French people who know foreign languages, accept them with enthusiasm,
but the average Frenchman to-day prefers a foreign film without even under-
standing a word of the dialogue, because he has a feeling that those pictures
are nearer to cinema than any home-product he is offered.

Of course, big mistakes in judgment occur all the time. The basis of any
real value having been removed, no intelligent comparison is possible, and the
average cinema-goer accepts many foreign pictures which would be a big failure
if they were French talkies. Snobism isn't dead yet.

For one, / Am a Fugitive — one of the best pictures ever produced — one
has to accept many worthless and badly done pictures like that poor melo-
drama Back Street, which has been running already for 7 months continuously.
Tet's veil our faces, for none of the French critics seemed to think it was just
too dreadful. What has become of the intelligent and precise spirit of French
criticism ? Though in their defence, it may be said that " In the Kingdom of
the blind, the one-eyed man is the big shot." Poor spiteful resignation.

Nobody dares any more to express his sincere feelings. The critics,
overwhelmed by the multitude of bad products, no longer know whether a
picture is really good, or only acceptable as compared with other work of the
same poor quality.

Nobody thinks about the impossibility of an interesting production as
long as financial customs of the cinema world are what they are. (Rene
Clair — one of the very few who still keep a clear head on the subject — said a few
months ago that the French cinema couldn't go on working under the present
capitalistic system, because financial considerations necessarily keep the
director from doing what his better self would suggest. But nobody really
listened and his suggestions were put aside as being subversive, bolshevistic
and dangerous.)

Nobody bothers about the low standard of sound in French pictures,
though France has musicians like Edgar Varese, with the best and most

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realisable ideas about the use of sound in films. But, of course, he isn't even
allowed to go near a studio.

A few years ago, when the French cinema was at its worst (in the " silent "
days) when each new picture showed a more definite decline, I had hopes that a
few good directors could change the whole outlook. Now I no longer think
that this could be done. The whole foundation of this industry (as it prides
itself on being an industry, let us call it so) is wrong and crooked. But who will
have the courage to tear everything down, clear it up and begin again on a new
basis ?

The answer to this — where and when shall we find it ?
Where is the cinema we liked ?

The only real answer to this — I am afraid — the only possible solution of all
these problems, lies far beyond purely cinematographic troubles.

Jean Lenauer.

Paris, July 1933.

FILMS AND VALUES

What gives the experience of seeing a certain film its value ? How are
we to compare one film with another ? Why is the opinion of one film critic
not as good as another ? Where does the movie art stand in the scale of
values ? What is the value of the arts, anyway ? What answer have we
for those who say that the arts are no longer worthy of cultivation ?

Typewriters which write about films seem unable to cope with such
searching questions ; but I. A. Richards has worked out these problems with
special relation to poetry. In fault of a cineaste of the calibre of
Mr. Richards, we might profitably apply his words to " the art of the
movie ..."

The experience elicited by the artistic movie is not a distinct kind of
mental activity : art is no private heaven for aesthetes as the Russian
lens workers contemptuously imagine. There is no aesthetic experience
sui generis ; the special form attributed to the aesthetic experience being
an effect of communication. To stick to Richards when we look at the
screen we are not doing something quite unlike walking towards the cinema :
the experience of ugliness has nothing in common with that of beauty which
both do not share with innumerable other experiences no one (except
Croce) would dream of calling aesthetic.

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Marlene Dietrich listening to a discussion between Director Rouben Mamoulian
and sceiiarist Samuel Hoffenstein during the making of " Song of Songs," a

Paramount film.

Marlene Dietrich ecoute un debat entre le regisseur Rouben Mamoulian et le
scenariste Samuel Hoffenstein pendant la realisation du " Song of Songs," un film

Paramount .

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When we say " This is beautiful " we mean " This causes in us an
experience which is valuable in certain ways." To describe the value of
the experience is criticism : criticism is a branch of psychology and no special
ethical or metaphysical idea need be introduced to explain value. To
postulate the aesthetic experience makes an easy step to the postulation of a
peculiar and unique aesthetic value : this way, the world rapidly fills with
bogus entities.

Richards has shown us that an experience is valuable when
it satisfies an appetency without involving the frustration of some
equal or more important appetency. And Richards is quick to assure us
that the view of the mind as a system of impulses should not be called
Materialism : it might equally be called Idealism as neither term in this
connection has any scientific or strictly symbolic meaning or reference.
Both the experience of a toothache and the experience of a sunspot are
due to neural changes : yet these neural changes retain their privilege to be
the most interesting of all events.

So, the arts are not substitution, not built from the play motif or
propaganda (Oh ! lens workers !), but are the best available data for deciding
which experiences are valuable. For the artist is the man who lacks inhibi-
tions, who has integrated responses so that he lives fully, who has cleaily
seen the varying possibilities of existence and organized the whole. The
artist knows experience at its highest : the arts are an appraisal of existence,
a storehouse of recorded values.

Attacks against taste are dangerous, as Richards remarks, because they
appeal to a natural instinct — hatred of superior persons. Yet bad taste and
crude responses are at the root of all evil : the rearguard of society cannot
be extricated until the vanguard has gone further. To put it in the most
practical terms for the Russian propagandist school of cinema : a step in
mathematical accomplishment facilities a new turn in ski-ing.

The punishment of bad taste is to be shut off from wide ranges of valuable
experience. The man who is satisfied with British films is debarred from
appreciation of other things which he would enjoy far more if he could enjoy
them ! It is adults not children who suffer most from bad movies : no
adult can enjoy the crude experiences of the bad film without suffering a
disorganisation which has its effects in everyday life. It is the false theory
of the severance and disconnection between "aesthetic" and ordinary
experience which has prevented this danger from being understood. As
Richards sums up : an improvement of a response is the only benefit which
anyone can receive, the degradation of a response the only calamity.

Therefore, readers of Close Up should start a serious boycott against
certain firms (who certainly shall be nameless but who will be readily dis-
covered by the film fan) because they make no effort to raise the quality of
their movies from that of the novelette. In contrast, readers should write
to that excellent firm, Paramount, and congratulate the supervisors on their
efforts to provide better and different films. Not only have Paramount
given us the Four Marx Brothers and Mae West, but recent Paramount

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films have had special angles of quality : there were mental moments in
Farewell To Arms, real fun in International House, genuine ingenuity in
The Crime of the Century, moments of drama of an unusual kind in Super-
natural, phantasy in The Phantom President, lasting atmosphere in The Trial
of Temple Drake, good characterisation in Strictly Personal. These are movies
to see when they come your way : they help to adjust systems of impulses
not ordinarily adjusted to the world.

O.B.

Dietrich and Mamoulian at a dinner party given by the latter prior to her
departure for Europe. Photo : Paramount.

Dietrich et Mamoulian se dinent ensemble avant le depart de Dietrich pour
VEurope. Photo : " Paramount."

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The Director tells Marlene How! Rouben Mamoulian describing a scene to Marlene
Dietrich in " Song of Songs."

Rouben Mamoulian expose a Marlene Dietrich une scene du " Song of Songs."

SECOND MANIFESTO BY THE EDITORS
OF u EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA"

July, 1933.
Hollywood, California,
U.S.A.

" IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THE PROJECTED QUE VIVA MEXICO !
IS AS DEFINITELY A HEROIC EPIC OF THE NEW RUSSIAN CUL-
TURE AS THE VOLSUNG SAGA, THE ILIAD, AND PERHAPS THE
MAHABHARATA ARE OF OTHER CULTURES. AS SUCH IT IS VERY
NEARLY THE GREATEST THING PRODUCED ON THIS SIDE OF
THE ATLANTIC SINCE THE BEST DAYS OF THAT OTHER CULTURE
WHICH IT COMMEMORATES. THE JOB IS TO GET PEOPLE TO SEE
IT. THEY LOOK ON THE FILM AS MERELY A BETTER SORT OF
MOVIE (LIKE THOSE REALLY FINE PICTURES MR. ARLISS MAKES)
AND SAY ' TUT-TUT, WHAT A SHAME.' "

— Kirk Bond, Baltimore Film Student.

" THE RAPE OF QUE VIVA MEXICO ! .... A BRAINLESS
ACT OF VANDALISM. . . . CRIMINALLY UNPARDONABLE
TREATMENT OF A GREAT FILM CONCEPTION. . . . IT IS SAFE
TO SAY THAT FUTURE FILM HISTORIANS WILL RECORD YOUR
(SINCLAIR & LESSER) VULGARIZATION OF QUE VIVA MEXICO!
AS THE WORST CRIME IN THE ANNALS OF CINEMA."

— Barnet G. Braver-Mann, in a letter to Upton Sinclair.

Since Experimental Cinema's first MANIFESTO ON EISENSTEIN'S
MEXICAN FILM was issued, the Sinclair-Lesser group have made several
counter-attacks. From the offices of Sol Lesser, over the signature of the
publicity director for the film, Mr. Frank Whitbeck, letters have emanated
politely replying to the protests of various people who read our first
MANIFESTO. The main justification for the deed, as stated by Mr. Whitbeck
in a letter sent to one of our collaborators, Herman G. Weinberg, is, " We are
not interested in propaganda — only in entertainment." The Hollywood ideal of
" entertainment," then, with its connotations of " success," box-office grosses
and the implied " infallibility " of judgment of masses of Hollywood-trained
movie-goers, seems to be the criterion by which Eisenstein's backers will test
the merit of their version of QUE VIVA MEXICO !

The circulation of our first MANIFESTO throughout the United States,
not to mention in other quarters of the globe, evoked from Mr. Upton Sinclair
himself several public statements, wherein he defended the Lesser version of
Eisenstein's film. Among other things, Mr. Sinclair stated that " The present
version {Thunder Over Mexico) has been edited in accord with Eisenstein's
ideas " (The New Republic, July 5) and, in the same statement, that the present
prologue " gives glimpses " of the ancient Mayan civilization, tracing the
subsequent Spanish influences, both religious and political, etc., etc., while in

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249

Marlene Dietrich gives a farewell luncheon party for her husband, Rudolph Sieber
on the day before his return to Germany. From left to right — Rouben Mamoulian,
Maurice Chevalier, Marlene Dietrich, her daughter Maria and Mr. Sieber.

Marlene Dietrich donne un dejeuner pour prendre conge de la part de son mari,
Rudolph Sieber, le jour avant son retour en Allemagne. De gauche d droit : Rouben
Mamoulian, Maurice Chevalier , Marlene Dietrich, sa fille Maria et Mr. Sieber.

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another statement (a letter to The Modern Monthly, July, 1933), Mr. Sinclair
charged that " There has been a campaign of deliberate falsification carried
on concerning this picture." On several occasions Mr. Sinclair also quoted
the only favourable review thus far written on Thunder Over Mexico, — an
" ecstatic " review by his intimate friend, Mr. Robert Wagner, editor of a
Beverly Hills society journal, Script, in which said Wagner referred to the
Sinclair-Lesser conception of Eisenstein's magnum opus as the " bastard child
of the shotgun marriage of Moscow and Hollywood. And like so many
illegitimate children, it is more beautiful than either parent." Besides these
statements, there have been further denials by Mr. Sinclair, all designed, of
course, to justify Sol Lesser's " interpretation " of Eisenstein's scenario, all
proclaiming the kinship between Mr. Lesser's editing of the film and Eisenstein's
own ideas, and all thereby evading the main issue, — i.e., the destruction of a
supreme work of art.

Through the courtesy of our esteemed colleagues, the Editors of CLOSE
UP, we again take the opportunity to condemn the Sinclair-Lesser version of
QUE VLVA MEXICO ! and we submit the following statement of facts for the
consideration of the European film-world :

I. Thunder Over Mexico has definitely NOT been edited " in accord with
Eisenstein's ideas." Neither Eisenstein's cinematic ideas nor his political
and cultural approach to the subject-matter are evident in the Sinclair-Lesser
version. Cinematically, Thunder Over Mexico is on a lower level than the
average good product turned out of the commercial film studios of Hollywood.
Culturally, Thunder Over Mexico does not arouse even a faint suspicion of
Eisenstein's original vision and interpretation of the age-old Mexican land.

II. Thunder Over Mexico represents only an isolated fragment of the
original QUE VIVA MEXICO! Three complete episodes (or "novels,"
as Eisenstein calls them in the scenario) are missing from Mr. Lesser's picture
(which is not Eisenstein's picture) : " TEHUANTEPEC," " FIESTA," and
the " SOLDADERA " episode. Yet these three episodes are indispensable to
the total image of Mexico which Eisenstein intended to project. They are as vital
to the sum-image of the land as are the opening and closing episodes of
" POTEMKIN " to the total vision projected in that picture. The episode
called " TEHUANTEPEC " presents an ideal image of the tropical paradise
of Mexico, integral Communism, a significant contrast to the hard, brutal life
of the northern maguey plains. ..." FIESTA " contains the bull-fight
sequences, combined with a typical Eisenstein satire on the bourgeoisie of
Mexico City. "SOLDADERA" depicts the revolutionary movement of
1910, one of the bloodiest episodes in the long history of the land of the Aztecs.
. . . These three episodes are missing from the release version of Eisen-
stein's film. The release version is therefore incomplete, and, because of its
wholesale omissions, it fails to represent Eisenstein's original conception.

III. All the material dealing with the evolution, through countless ages,
of the Mayan conception of death, traced to its decadent manifestations in
present-day Mexico, is missing from the Sinclair-Lesser version. Due to his
profound ignorance of the meaning and value of these scenes, Lesser eliminated

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every shot of the Mayan funeral in ancient Yucatan, a ceremony which Eisen-
stein depicted exactly as it was done thousands of years ago. To a university
professor who requested to see these scenes, Lesser denied permission, on the
grounds that the scenes were extremely tiresome and dull. This was his
comment on one of the finest spectacles ever projected in the cinema, rivalling
the greatest moments of Griffith's Intolerance.

IV. The present prologue is a complete and thoroughgoing distortion of
Eisenstein's original prologue. In fact, we do not hesitate to say, even further,
that the Sinclair-Lesser prologue to Thunder Over Mexico has nothing in com-
mon with Eisenstein's original prologue. In place of " glimpses of the ancient
Mexican civilization," Eisenstein had planned a resplendent and epic re-crea-
tion, a vast synthetic image, of the Mayan, Aztec and Toltec cultures. The
Spanish influences, which came ages later, were not intended to be incorporated
in the prologue. According to the scenario, the authentic prologue was not
only to conjure up a mighty and melancholy image of the past, but also to
establish, for the first time, the " death-theme " underscoring the picture.

V. The images of the Mexican conception of death, beginning with the
Mayan funeral (the original prologue), were intended by Eisenstein as a
refrain throughout the entire film. The death-idea was to be worked into the
general pattern of the picture between the episodes. Since the principal epi-
sodes have been eliminated, and since the general conception of the film has
been hopelessly perverted, the death-idea has also been scrapped. No hint of
it appears in Mr. Sinclair's Thunder Over Mexico.

VI. The shots of the " Festival " on the hacienda (Thunder Over Mexico)
were never intended for that episode. They were " cut in " by the editors of
Eisenstein's film from the special material which Eisenstein took, dealing with
the Festival of the Virgin of Guaduloupe. In their present form, they are
historically and sociologically inaccurate. Apart from every other blunder
committed, the false placement of these shots robs Eisenstein's material of its
cultural and ethnic authenticity.

VII. The montage of the entire film, Thunder Over Mexico, if the present
" editing " can be dignified by the term " montage," is a consummate proof
that this version has NOT been edited " in accord with Eisenstein's ideas."
Nothing could be further from Eisenstein's ideas than the miserable offering
(truly a " bastard child ") which Messrs. Sinclair & Lesser are endeavouring to
sell to the public under the title Thunder Over Mexico. We therefore un-
hesitatingly pronounce Thunder Over Mexico a cinematic fraud and we publicly
deny that it represents Eisenstein's ideas in any manner, shape or form, from
whatever angle viewed — cinematic, political or cultural.

VIII. The campaign waged by Experimental Cinema to save QUE VIVA
MEXICO ! has been, and will continue to be, an educational campaign, — the
first of its kind in the history of the cinema. Its sole purpose is to enlighten
the world with respect to the contents, meaning and form of Eisenstein's
original conception of Mexico in the hope that such enlightenment may in-
directly result in the restoration of the 200,000 feet of negative to their proper
owner — Eisenstein. On the other hand, against Thunder Over Mexico, a

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"Suburbia," B. Barnet. The beginning of hatred between life long friends when
War is declared. The German and Russian Cronies.

" Le Ban lieu," B. Barnet. Declaration de la guerre. L' Allemand et le Russe
trouvent la haine au lieu de Vamitie.

sickening wreck, which brazenly flies Eisenstein's name on its masthead,
Experimental Cinema, together with innumerable other film groups throughout
the world, will wage relentless and unceasing propaganda, until the entire
world shall recognize Thunder Over Mexico for what it is, — a patched-up
interpretation of the original scenario, without meaning, form or rhythm, and
without the faintest semblance to anything recognizable as an Eisenstein film.

WE CONDEMN " THUNDER OVER MEXICO " AS A FRAUD !

WE CONDEMN UPTON SINCLAIR AND HIS FRIENDS
FOR THEIR OBTUSENESS, FOR THEIR INSENSITIVENESS TO
EISENSTEIN'S UNIQUE GENIUS, AND FOR HOLDING THEIR IN-
VESTMENT IN HIGHER ESTEEM THAN THEY HOLD THE PRESER-
VATION OF THE GREATEST WORK OF ART DONE ON THE
AMERICAN CONTINENT !

WE CALL UPON THE ENTIRE EUROPEAN FILM-WORLD TO
PROTEST IN THE MOST DECISIVE MANNER AGAINST THE RE-
LEASE OF THE SOL LESSER MISINTERPRETATION OF EISEN-
STEIN'S MEXICAN VISION !

WE CALL UPON ART-LOVERS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD TO
DENOUNCE " THUNDER OVER MEXICO " AS REPRESENTING THE
MOMENTARY TRIUMPH OF AMERICAN MONEY OVER EVERYTHING

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" The Story of Temple Drake " with Miriam Hopkins and Jack La Rue. A Pay amount Picture.
" L'histoiie de Temple Drake," avec Miriam Hopkins et Jack La Rue. Film Paramount.

SINCERE AND NOBLE AND PASSIONATE IN THE REALM OF ARTIS-
TIC CREATION.

FILM STUDENTS OF EUROPE : JOIN US IN DECLAIMING
AGAINST THE BASTARD VERSION OF EISENSTEIN'S MEXICAN
FILM ! LAUNCH A EUROPEAN CAMPAIGN OF PROTEST AGAINST
THIS DEED, A " BRAINLESS ACT OF VANDALISM " ! LET US
NEVER CEASE FIGHTING UNTIL THE COMPLETE NEGATIVE HAS
BEEN RESTORED TO EISENSTEIN !

{Signed by) Editors of EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA and by Augustin
Aragon Leiva, Eisenstein's assistant in Mexico City.

NOTE FOR RESEARCH : Articles on the case of " QUE VIVA MEXICO ! "
have appeared in the following newspapers and periodicals : — The Modern
Monthly, The New Republic, The Nation, Touring Topics, The New Masses,
Los Angeles Times, New York Herald-Tribune, (U.S.A.) ; El Mundo (Havana,
Cuba), El Universal, El Nacional (Mexico City) ; La Nacion (Buenos Aires) ;

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Cinema Quarterly (Scotland) Moscow Daily News ; Close Up ; etc., etc.
For further information as to research data, communicate with Experimental
Cinema, 1625 N. Vine Street, Hollywood, Calif., U.S.A.

Seymour Stern.

THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTION WAS UNANIMOUSLY PASSED AT A
MEETING OF THE WORKERS' FILM AND PHOTO LEAGUE, AT
312 E. WATSON STREET, DETROIT, MICHIGAN, ON MONDAY
EVENING, MAY 15, 1933 :

WHEREAS a Hollywood movie by the name of Thunder Over Mexico, with the
approval of Upton Sinclair, one of the chief financial backers of this film, is
being exploited as the work of S. M. Eisenstein, and,

WHEREAS this film was not cut by Eisenstein and consequently does not
represent his determination of the relationship between the shots originally
taken by him and A. Tisse, his camera man, and,

WHEREAS Thunder Over Mexico, being merely a falsified fragment of the
footage taken for Que Viva Mexico by Eisenstein and Tisse, has nothing in
common with the original intention of Eisenstein and G. V. Alexandrov, who
collaborated upon the preparation of the original scenario for Que Viva Mexico,
and,

WHEREAS Thunder Over Mexico is an illegitimate version of Que Viva Mexico
that does a disservice to the conceptions of Eisenstein, Alexandrov and Tisse,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Workers' Film and Photo League
of Detroit to (I) denounce Thunder Over Mexico as a commercial vulgarization
of Que Viva Mexico, (2) urge branches of the Workers' Film and Photo League,
film societies and friends of the cinema in America (Mexico, Cuba, Canada, and
the United States) and Europe to wage relentless propaganda against Thunder
Over Mexico as a symbol of the criminal destruction of creative effort, (3) demand
of Upton Sinclair and his co-backers that this film be withdrawn and that the
complete negative, cut and uncut, of Que Viva Mexico be saved for Eisenstein,
and (4) that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to Upton Sinclair for his
immediate attention.

THE WORKERS' FILM AND PHOTO LEAGUE, DETROIT.

Jack Auringer, Secretary.

4246 Waverly St., Detroit.

' The Story of Temple Drake." Directed by Stephen Roberts. A Paramount Picture.
' L'histoire de Temple Drake," un film Paramount . Regisseur: Stephen Roberts.

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Correspondencia Particular,
De Los Consejeros del Departamento de

Bellas Artes.

To the Editor of CLOSE UP.

Sir,

An invitation signed by Upton Sinclair to attend a private showing of a
film made by Sergei Eisenstein in Mexico was forwarded to me some time ago
by some friends in Los Angeles. This induced me to send you these lines with
my request that they may be inserted in the magazine under your management.

About two years ago, Robert Flaherty and Dudley Murphy, who happened
to know my keen interest for the cinema and the studies I had made in this
connection, gave Eisenstein letters of introduction to me, in which they
expressed their opinions that Eisenstein and I would assuredly coincide con-
cerning the artistic and technical points of view of a film that was to be made in
this country.

During our initial conversation, I suggested to Eisenstein that a work
which necessarily had to deal with some phases of social and political move-
ments of Mexico would place him and his aids under a great responsibility.
I stressed the fact that a great deal of care would have to be exercised in order
completely to avoid all possibility of misinterpretation. Eisenstein invited me
to collaborate with him upon the preliminary outline of the scenario, the
choice of locations and the arrangements of details. From that time our work
together went as far as to my personal assistance in the shooting of the picture.
I accepted this task seeing the great importance of such a work of art, and
because of Eisenstein being in it.

While we were engaged upon our preliminary work, the government of
my country requested me to act as its official supervisor. My task would be
to ascertain the authenticity of types and costumes as well as observe that the
definition of social and political tendencies of the story would be true to the
original script, previously notifying Mr. Eisenstein that without my formal
approval the film could not be taken. Only after talking over with Mr.
Eisenstein of my government's request and having reached complete agree-
ment with him about details, I accepted the responsibility as official supervisor
of the film.

From there on every facility was extended to Mr. Eisenstein ; and it was
due to my personal standing with the government that a permit was issued for
the exportation of the undeveloped film to the United States, where developing,
cutting and montage were to be done. I must stress that in having obtained
this permit for Mr. Eisenstein, we overcame a very strict requirement that no
film is allowed to go out of Mexico without being censored and approved by a
special office the government maintains for this purpose. We secured this
special concession upon the implicit condition that I would make a final
supervision of the finished film prior to its release.

The agreement with my government included the stipulation that my
supervision would not only involve the taking of the picture, but its cutting and

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montage as well. It was agreed that Mr. Eisenstein would notify me in due
time in order that I may go to the United States, view and officially approve
the film before it is shown to the public.

With enormous surprise I now learn that Eisenstein's film on Mexico,
the very one upon which my prestige and credit with my country's government
are involved, is being publicly exhibited in the United States.

As I cannot approve the said exhibition, for I neither know in which way
the film was finished, nor even the name of the person who performed the
cutting or of the one who authorized its showing, I beg of you, Sir, to let the
public know through the columns of your magazine, that I decline all
responsibility for the picture that is being exhibited under the title Thunder
Over Mexico, directed by Eisenstein and that I do not consider myself to be
involved in a project which might injure the artistic prestige which gave me a
sufficient measure of my government's trust as to be appointed in this case its
official representative as well as, subsequently to the membership of the
Committee selected for the formulation of the laws and regulations for the
exhibition and exportation of Mexican made films as well as the importation
of foreign pictures.

I am taking the necessary steps with my government for relieving me, in
view of the foregone facts, of all responsibility in the making of the Eisenstein
film, at the same time informing it of my formal disapproval of the parts of the
film, in the making of which I had no participation, as well as of the film's
cutting and montage. — Very truly yours,

Adolfo Best Maugard, Mexico City.

" Deserter." V. I. Pudovkin.

AROUND A NEW FILM BY DESLAW

Mere rules of construction do not necessarily give the form of the successful
modern* house. On a pure basis of construction Corbusier might have arrived
at any other shape : but a significant modern house has an emotional basis in
spite of the opinion of most appointed critics. Of course the choice of materials
must effect structure : what is important to remember is that the front of
Euston Station and Westminster Abbey are built of the same material. It
remains a truth of the profounder criticism that constructional possibilities
follow an emotion.

Because significant building represents an organised outlook on the world,
it is, in a sense, in conflict with Nature. Aspects of modern architecture
become further and further removed from Nature because they are superior
to Nature. Possibly the tiers of windows in a Corbusier house may suggest
mountain ranges ; but they are organised by the mind of man. Nature is
disorganised and is constantly trying experiments which do not come off :
modern architecture has no place for the accidentals and eccentricities of
Nature. Yet, the significant modern architect keeps the great fundamentals
and orders them through his intelligence.

To understand how deeply the modern architect penetrates in order to
make his building a work of art (that is a work which holds before man what
the world around means to him), one must realise that not only forms in
substance but also forms in void are treated. Construction is not confined to
solids which have voids between them, but equally to voids which have solids
between them (art directors attention please !). The use of the solid to define
the void indicates an appreciation of the Nature of modern physics, the cosmos
in which the void plays so large a part. The modern physicist speaks of waves
of probability and knows that the electron, by reason of its effects, can be
traced back to the point where it should exist, where, in fact, it vanishes : the
modern architect builds such a house as Corbusier has shaped.

Certain similar consideration on the higher branches of modern archi-
tecture are specially brought to mind by the photos from Deslaw's latest
picture, La Cite Universitaive de Paris (Cameraman : Jean Goreaud, assistant :
N. Dulac). There is a special symphonic setting by university musicians of
different nations. 'Ainsi une rhumba qui sera executee par des etudiants
cubains, un morceau joue par des guitaristes argentins, des chants grecs, une
danse samourai et des banduras ukrainiennes . . .'

James Burford & Oswell Blakeston.

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259

Holland. From Deslaw's
new film "La Cite Univer-
sitaire de Paris."

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Lot in Sodom. (See Page 266) .

FICTION OK NATURE?

Madchen in Uniform shown in America last winter set our studios an
example in photography and somewhat reinstated the plausibility of emotion
but Hollywood has the bad luck to be outstarred by its whereabouts : eucalyp-
tus-trees, calico horses with pale eyes, bits of sea-coast with cormorants or
pelicans, or rolling hills with shadows. George Arliss is neutralised by the
dogville-comedy aspect of his support and Greta Garbo is shabbied by luxury.
Plucked eyebrows, reinforced eyelashes, a slouch, do not improve an already
fortunate equipment. (If Henry James and John Gay, Dr. Mensendieck and
a sea-lion, could but make some suggestions.) And for G. G. a foil is needed
like Carlyle Blackwell whom " certain adults still able to totter about the
streets on a fine day " will remember ; tried and true Lochinvars of the studios
are a strong handicap.

No ; we do not like " loveing pictures. We like any kind but love."
Brooklyn shares this repugnance — expressed by Birmingham children to their
city enquiry committee, 1931 — but nature films would not here come last in
the category of choices ; nor films of other countries. Bring 'Em Back Alive,
with Frank Buck (the man) between showings, held the attention ; also
the Martin Johnson's Congorilla : the crocodiles and the great prehistoric
bulrush-and-palm hippopotamus scene with twitching ears, submergings, and

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unanimous yawnings — not to mention peculiarities of narrative, and contrasts
in racial sensibility. (The pigmy drops his staff so that Mr. J. may measure
him ; is in doubt about the propriety of recovering it ; withdraws in embarrass-
ment from refined white obliviousness). And other studies in " native bravado."

In Seeing Europe on a Budget — the Burton Holmes lecture with motion
pictures by Andre La Varre — black and white sheep of varying sizes and the
Magyar shepherd in full-length natural fleece mantle, were a hit ; also
Hungarian pigs fed from both sides of the trough, the momentum of the drove
resulting in an occasional pig chairing ; a flock of ducks entering a pond on a
glide so smooth the transition from running to floating was undetectible.
Part of this travelogue was the white marble Spanish Riding School of Vienna
filmed by Bryson Jones ; followed by ski-jumping and miscellaneous skill on
steep slopes. Leap and landing were here so well pieced and the detail con-
tributing to equilibrium — on new snow — when leaping gullies and circling
obstructions was so neat that by comparison, the average newsreel version
is like a jig-saw puzzle before the piecer begins. Lacking the technical merits
of the Burton Holmes, and not to be compared in style with the Shippee-
Johnson pictures of Peru, was / am From Siam photographed by Karl Rovilov —
a record under difficulties, of the cremation ceremonies of the late King Rama
VI of Siam and of the coronation of King Prajadipok. Sunday supplements
gave an idea of the samovar-like grandeur of the glassy gold mountain of the
coronation throne (ascended behind a curtain) but did not suggest the nervous-
ness of the occasion as the conscientious potentate accepted one by one the
symbols of office and placed the crown on his head, none lesser than a crowned
head being fit to touch a king's head, and the strewing — in benediction — of
gold flowers from a little gold bowl. Nor could anything but motion suggest
the. pompous inability of the elephants to be stereotyped, the top-heaviness
of the three-tiered parasols, the wiriness and blood of the horses. Following
the aristocratic portion of the film, the popular portion : a motley of sports,
habits, and occupations : the swarming hallowe'en skirmish of figures on stilts
with animal heads, the foot-ball game played with a tennis-ball — goaled
through napkin rings ; convoy of the little white elephant to the temple of
purification, through streets lined with banana-trees to simulate jungle. (Shown
with the foregoing, the desperate and blastworthy Puss in Boots).

The Mystic Land of Peru by Robert Shippee, co-leader and geologist of the
Shippee- Johnson Expedition to the Peruvian Andes. Lieut. George R. Johnson
being chief photographer of the Expedition. Plain and piebald llamas ;
stray dogs ; mules reluctantly crossing a grass suspension bridge of the kind
Pizarro saw — as though walking on a hammock — with grandly designed back-
drop of dim peaks and clear mountain-side — a remnant of civilization in the
Lost Valley of the Colca, marching to music from souvenir bugles, flutes, and
drums, played by home-folk-deserters from the army — with a ceremonial
head to the procession, of tin pans of silver mounted on sticks. The photo-
graphic moment in it all, no doubt is bread-making on the mountain side, by a
native woman — beginning with elephant trunk-like motion of the body
strangely continued : a back view in which the feet are revealed winnowing

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grain — bare feet below a long dress. There are the cresentic sand-dunes on La
Joya Pampa — 175 feet from tip to tip — blown along in formation sixty feet
a year by trade winds ; walls of oblong rock staggered in modern fashion,
with here and there a block weighing about 200 tons ; harvest-field cross of
wheat ; " pottery simulating animal forms ; the characteristic straw hat of
the Inca, with turned-up brim ; striped ponchos ; and so on.

Carveth Wells' This Strange Animal World — a little crude as to narrative —
for the Northwest Scientific Expedition of Perth, West Australia, on a voyage
with motion-picture camera to the northwest coast — showed the best
Australian opossums ever seen by this (Brooklyn) Barnum — a gray one and
an albino ; the best merino champion ram ; also an alligator-dance, tribal
women and a few dogs looking on, the alligator ; a line of twenty men diminish-
ing in height from thefirst to the end of the line, standing on spread legs, beneath
which trellis a man wriggles on hands and feet from the tail forward and out
and through the head. Mr. Wells' giant clams (of the kind said to amputate
legs and never let go) were not so vivid as Captain Hurley's shown here some
years back ; nor were the coral-beds, zebroid fish, sponges, etc., so sharp as
Captain Hurley's. The wild kangaroos in flight, undulating like the rapids of a
dangerous stream, as they crossed ditches and scrub, were impressive ; also a
momentary but hyper-clever close-up of the flying opossum's leg-to-leg mem-
branes ; and the above-referred-to opossums : the gray one on hind legs in a
eucalyptus tree, plucking a branch, retiring along the tree ; swinging head
down as it ate of the foliage, suspended by tail, by tail only, then up again —
weaving around, back of, and through, a clump of vertical twigs, in serpent
loops and eights without standing-place or space to squeeze through. The
platypus on land, with dry coat of furrier's beaver — was a best thing ; as was
the echidna disappearing in such a way as to produce no mound of accumulating
earth — mere surface convulsions.

In Alaska, motion-pictures of Aniakchak crater — Father Hubbard's
seagulls, salmons, and hair seals, were of interest — especially the seagulls,
flat to the lee of a storm-wave, widely spaced, with head to the wind. Shafts
of iceberg breaking from the mass emphasized the deceptiveness of the tele-
photo lens — as did Mr. Shippee's sanddunes — the scale being as much altered
as the area of Russia would be diminished in a dime-sized map of Europe.
Father Hubbard is important but his filming is less lovable than that of Amos
O. Burg (in Alaska and South America) and that of Captain Stanley Osborne
(in Australia).

The kings of the season probably were Dr. Bailey, Dr. Ditmars, and Captain
Knight. In Dr. A. M. Bailey's and Mr. Robert J. Niedrock's bird and small
mammal studies for their library of nature films at the Chicago Academy
Sciences — with enticing commentary by Dr. Bailey — there is not a dull foot.
Last year, Camera Shooting in Southern Marshes. This year, In Haunts of
the Golden Eagle, tests with turned duck-eggs — pointed ends out and round
ends in, and with avocet eggs, indicate that the duck-eggs point in by intention,
and that a bird will brood an all-clutch imposture. Dipper-birds (i.e. water-
ousels) — new to the motion-picture camera — were shown running in and out

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of their tunnel-shaped nest on a darkly shaded ledge, spattered at intervals
by drops from a heavy torrent ; and an albinistic prairie falcon and nest
(prairie form of the duck-hawk) now filmed for the first time. This falcon,
and Mr. Wells' white captive opossum, suggest that the charm of whiteness
varies — albino crows and rattlesnakes seeming belittled by their oddness,
the white elephant being not a success and deserving added sympathy by reason
of its prominence. One can imagine no more sumptuous effect, however,
than the coat of this falcon tossed by the gale but undisordered — the hard legs,
flattened head, and glass-black eye, setting it off. The sensation of these five
reels perhaps was the continuous very close close-up of a long-eared (i.e. rabbit)
owl — tiger-striping on red-amber body-colour — among well-twigged branches
of a tree like the tamarack, with a shaft of evening sun slanting down from
Mt. Evans ; both eyes flaming yellow but the eye in shadow, round with round
pupil ; the one toward the sun — iris and pupil — narrowed to a vertical oval.
The great horned owl and nest were shown, and various lesser owls ; the
mammalogist of the party " making a trip every morning to the nests of the
owls and in this way collecting mammals he could secure in no other way."
Recalling, though not precisely of course, Captain Knight's merlin's nest with a

" The Tragedy of Everest." The 1924 Expedition. War dour.
" La Trage'die d'Everest." L'expt'dition de 1924. Wardour.

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jackdaw walking about it looking for scraps of meat, and Carveth Wells'
Australian eyrie from which a native was coming away with eagle's food for
himself.

Dr. Bailey's golden eagle eyrie on a narrow shelf of rock at the summit of a
bleached pinnacle striped by transverse erosions, without vegetation or neigh-
boring peaks was more " terrible " than Captain C. W. R. Knight's Scotch
eyrie scenes — though no partial study can rival a life history such as Captain
Knight showed, of male and female eaglet in The Filming of the Golden Eagle,
1929. It is difficult not to write a bookful on work such as this ; the shadings
into unsatisfactorines and the supreme peaks of attainment, but of the present
film, The Romance of the Golden Eagle, one must be content to mention a few
rarities only : an Ailsa Crag gannet, in slow motion, leaving the nest ; the
razor-bill steering itself with its feet, one on either side like little black masons'
trowels ; the suggestion of power in the interacting acrs of the wings braking
the momentum of the eagle as it pitches, on the ground, feet forward ; " the
pass " or transfer in air, of the frog or mouse that he has in his feet, by the
male marsh-hawk to the female as she flies toward him before he reaches the
nest ; the tame raven with " beak rather like a pair of pliers " ; tame owl
turning its head first one way and then the other, from a point in the circle
around to the point from which it started without moving shoulders or body ;
two young cuckoos so tall the foster robins must " hover in the air to hand over
the ration." Captain Knight's interpretation of terms used in falconry, by
examples of their use by Shakespeare should be embodied in a book ; as should
the steps in training a falcon, given in The Filming of the Golden Eagle.

In Strange Animals I Have Known, Dr. R. L. Ditmars, Curator of Reptiles
and Mammals at the Bronz Zoological Park, presents a series of parallels in
protection ; comparing the anthropoid apes " with a more lowly type like the
beaver," with insects, crabs, clams, cuttlefish, sea-hares, and the like. He
made the pictures " with various cameras " and " machinery such as is used in
dramatic studios, some less complicated than that, and some more complicated."
The study of beavers is of curious interest and represents seven years' work
but does not smite the mind aesthetically as the insects do, and the triangular
very black front of an armidallo's head ; " certain pallid forms on desert sand
which in a way is like snow " ; or the giant ant-eater lapping milk with a
tongue like a surveyor's tape for length, its " mouth so small that when yawning
it would barely admit the tip of one's little finger " — a royally exotic animal
with its white-edged isosceles triangle from the shoulder down the foreleg, a
black patch on each shin, and heavy tail of upcurving fountaining fringe. The
platypus moving about in water like a salamander, with pin-tipped claws
connected by delicate black webs like internal membranes, was informing".
An echidna gathering, with what resembled an anteater's tongue, a colony of
white winged-ants from a fallen tree, should be mentioned — and a horned toad
defined by white paper slipped behind the points of its collar. The manifesta-
tions of protection in marine creatures, photographed through the co-operation
of the Biological Station in Naples and the Oceanographic Museum at Monaco —
with equipment presented to Dr. Ditmars by the Prince of Monaco — have this

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advantage over the Williamson pictures, and Dr. Beebe's — the activity of
the creatures is recorded under characteristic conditions, not under the stimulus
of excitement or at temperatures inimical to them. It might be added, however,
that photography, like the lie-detector of the criminal court, reveals agitation
which the eye fails to see — especially evident in Dr. Ditmars' horned toads
when touched, in Captain Osborne's invaluable tuateras, and the Carveth
Wells newly hatched turned-over turtle.

To say that Dr. J. Sibley Watson has completed the filming oiLot in Sodom
on which he has been working for some years, with Mrs. Watson in a principal
role and music by Louis Siegel Rochester composer — is by this time not a
violation of secrecy. Mr. Herbert Ives' most recent demonstration of his depth
movie-device is also an item in American progress : photographing an object
as seen in a curved mirror and recording it on a sensitized plate with convex
ridges from top to bottom, back and front.

Marianne Moore.

Lot in Sodom." (See next page).

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Lot in Sodom."

"LOT IN SODOM"

By Herman G. Weinberg

In an era of sound and talking films when even the most experimental of
■our producers and cineasts — Pabst, Ruttman, Fischinger, Rene Clair and a
host of others — have produced exclusively for the film senere, and have achieved
a katharsis between sight and sound hitherto unrevealed in the cinema, I have
the courage, nay temerity, to review a sound film as a silent one. The film is
Lot In Sodom, the creators are Watson and Webber, those amazingly skilful
cineasts who previously produced Poe's Fall of the House of Ussher, and their
new work is some thirty- minutes of wondrous luminous pictures made fluid
and malleable in the creative imagination.

The sound apparatus was not available at the moment when this film was
privately screened for me in the i\mateur Cinema League offices, through whose
courtesy I was allowed to view it. A Mr. Louis Siegel did the score, on which I
hope for an opportunity to comment later. But the Close-Up deadline had to
be made. . . .

Beginning with the synthesis of Sodom, wickedest of mortal cities, we are
shown the orgies of the sodomites — semi-nude young men, fair of countenance

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and strong of limb, as they carry on their bacchanales. Pleasure and pain,
ecstasy and despair are mingled in these faun-like, evil faces that glide like
apparitions in a mist before us, as if seen through a powerful telescope which
had succeeded in overtaking several thousand light years. In the midst of
these saturnalian revels, Lot is seen in the synagogue with the elders. He
comes home, where his wife and daughter await him. Suddenly a blinding
light from which myriads of rays glance off and cut and cross each other until
the screen glitters with shimmering points of light shafts — an angel appears,
at the house of Lot. There he is received by Lot, his wife and daughter, given
the sacramental wine to drink and the Sabbath chalah to eat.

Towards late evening, word has spread around the town among the
Sodomites that a stranger has been received by Lot. They watch Lot's
strange guest like crouched animals, from outside the window. They know
not what to make of this person whose face is hidden by a cowl. They watch
with amusement, until grown weary of this indifference to their restless souls,
they shout for Lot to bring him out so that they may look at him. Lot comes
out to appease them. He coaxes and cajoles them but to no avail.

" Spare not even thy daughter ' " is the admonishment to Lot from the
angel. Lot offers the virginal beauty of his daughter as a sacrifice to the young
men. Not torture or death — but as an instrument of childbirth. Will they
not change their ways which are alien to God ? Lot pictures for them the
lovely poem which is childbirth — and here is the high spot of the film, and one
of the finest moment in all pure cinema. A mingling of tears, blood, water
and flowers, a physical agony lined by a spiritual ecstasy, a male hand dripping
with water after the delivery and the loving fondling of the luminous oval,
like the egg of a bird, which trembles and glows with the first breath of life —
finallv a clear close-up view of a child. And the mother smiling through her
tear stained face.

I cannot impart how the sudden burst of buds to full bloom, disclosing the
poignantly lyrical beauty of their stamens, as Lot's daughter lets drop her robe
disclosing her naked loveliness, gets across so well the idea of reproduction.
Her body floats in turbulent water during her travail, everything is immersed
in rushing water (a sexual symbol long discovered by Freud) until it calms down,
the body rises above the gentle ripples, and now the water drops gently (in
slow motion — three quarters of the film seems to have been " shot " in slow-
motion) from the fingers. A child is born.

But the Sodomites are unmoved by this strange poetry. They cannot feel
its sensual warmth, and turn from it in repugnance. They scorn Lot, and will
have none of his daughter.

The angel warns Lot to flee with his wife and daughter. Sodom's hours
are numbered. Ere long, the city will be destroyed. The angel discloses him-
self to the curious sodomites with their dumb, blank faces. They are blinded
by the light. They run away, falling over each other. The panic is on.
Lot flees with his wife and daughter. But curiosity overtakes Lot's wife. Or
was it sentiment ? She hears the roar and crackle of the fire and brimstone
that has descended on the city and turns back to look, against the angel's

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" Lot in Sodom."

orders. An enormous conflagration has enveloped the city — all the rafters
of the homes are burning. With a heavy heart she turns to rejoin her husband,
but she cannot move. Already her limbs have become rigid. Now her body,
and arms. The angel's prophecy is fulfilled.

I wish that Francis Bruguiere and Oswell Blakeston could see this film.
Surety in Lot in Sodom is there realized some of their experiments in Light
Rhythms. I have never seen light manipulated so eloquently as in these ex-
pressive lights and shadows which sometime form men or fragments of a body,
sometime coagulate into flowers or break up their particles into water — and
all times make of Lot in Sodom a moving and arresting film.
New York, July 5, 1933.

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Two stills from " The Story of Temple Drake," directed by
Stephen Roberts. A Paramount Film.

Deux cliches de " L'histoire de Temple Drake " mise-en-scene
de Stephen Roberts. Film Paramount.

Temple Drake.

FILM MORALS

Since the days of the kinetoscope penny peep-shows the films have been a
never-ending source of incitement to the moral crusader. And naturally so.
In them he sees reflected and brought to a magnified focus the many worldly
impertinences responsible for his reformatory itch. If his efforts to elevate the
movies are as yet without observable results, he is nevertheless perhaps entitled
to the credit for such restraint as now and again tempers their Hollywoodian
bounce and ribaldry. At all events, they have given him and continue to give
him a vast deal of concern on behalf of humanity in general and of youth in
particular.

This concern finds its latest expression in the disclosures of an American
organization, the Motion Picture Research Council. For the past four years it
has devoted itself to a survey of the influence of the films on children and
adolescents, and its findings are now in course of publication. These are so
extensive that it will require no less than ten large volumes to hold them. The
first of the series, Our Movie-Made Children, under the imprint of the Macmillan
Company, is already at hand and presents in popular, journalistic vein a
prefatory summing up of the full technical report of the council.

To accept the inferences and conclusions educible from the bristling con-
tents of this epitome, is to be convinced that the movies are an instrument of
the devil designed to pervert or undermine the moral, mental and nervous
health of our children. Were this the first time the sprouting generation has
been thus threatened through the enticements of a mischievous invention, the
present indictment of the cinema might well be viewed with alarm. But
experience has taught us otherwise and calms us with the assurance that we
have here in the situation of the moment neither novelty nor undue menace.
The outcry against the cinema is but today's recension of a story already
venerable in the days of Hammurabi.

The quite-to-be-expected circumstance that certain of our youngsters are
unwholesomely and even perniciously affected by the movies needs no multi-
plied volumes of statistics to carry conviction. Humanity is never without
its proportion of neurotic and proclivitous offspring, susceptible through one
means or another to wayward influences in thought or behaviour. Children
of this type who are today thus deflected by Hollywood films of crime and
amorosity are but the emotional duplicates of those of a less literal yesterday
who were similarly led awry by Old Testament stories of like character.

Nevertheless, the moralistic challengers of the cinema are in a measure
justified. The films may not have the widespread baneful influence attributed
to them, but certainly in no respect are they commendable as exemplars of
virtue or good manners. This is not because their stories are built
upon moral deviations, for so also are the scriptures of the world, tut
because we see these deviations too often invested with glamour and always-

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over-emphasized with incontinent exaggeration. The spot-lights of theatrical-
ism, of sensationalism, are focussed upon humanity's foibles and passions,
detaching them from the normal, interpretative background of life, while the
multiple inflections of chivalry and romance are reduced to the common, not
to say very common, denominator of sex appeal.

It stands to reason, therefore, that the screen with its meretricious pictur-
ings of life should agitate our social guardians and by them be accused of re-
sponsibility for the prevailing drift from the standards of a past generation.
If the Women's Christian Temperance Union expressed itself a bit more
emphatically than usual at its recent national convention, it revealed nothing
new as to its representative judgment when it declared :

"The films have worn us down to the thinnest veneer of national decency. Their
hypnotic suggestions have tended to break down the modesty of women, have brought the
morals and manners of the underworld to the top, and by their continued representation of
drinking as a harmless pastime have opened the doorway to national law violation. "

We have no quarrel with such conclusions by such good women. They
are but the natural outflow of a zealous righteousness untrammelled by analysis
or the intricacies of logic. With simple, post hoc assurance a disturbing social
change is laid to a particular concrete manifestation, which as a scapegoat
needs only to be packed off into the wilderness to restore the status quo. That
the films may be no more than a reflection of a changing order — a single factor
of a complex evolution development — themselves a predominant effect and in
turn but a subordinate cause — is a consideration beyond the bounds of mission-
ary philosophy.

Nor, after all, need this phase of the subject seriously concern us. The
Sisyphean task of reforming the movies may be left to the research councils
and the temperance unions. What should and does truly concern us, is not the
cinema's screen morals, but its individual moral delinquency as an institution.
Designed to serve a social purpose of cardinal value and usefulness, and with
every need, invitation, opportunity and facility to be of such service, it wilfully
neglects thus to apply itself, and, moreover, as a matter of obstinate policy,
superciliously scorns any suggestion looking toward its enlistment in the cause
of education or public morals.

Entertainment, diversion, relaxation are ever a human need, and the
films unquestionably fulfil this need — fulfil it, indeed, with the biblically en-
joined good measure, pressed down, and running over. But their inherent
capabilities vastly exceed the satisfying of this simple office. On the scale and
with a power of appeal beyond those of the newspaper or the radio, it lies within
their easy ability to wield a far-flung, effective influence in bringing the peoples
of the world into closer relationship upon questions of common interest and
moment, and to aid mightily through example and the spoken word in resolving
the perplexities of a wrangling and bewildered populace.

The art of the cinema — its technical art — is concededly of the highest
order. It places the films in the front rank as a medium of impressive and
influential expression. Yet while civilization today as never before is struggling
to hold its bearings and in need of every means of guidance and every
instrumentality for the tempering of hatreds and passions and for the salvaging

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of enlightened ideals, this art with its magic potentialities for helpfulness is
confined to the antics of clowns and the inconsequent chatter of frivolous
women. Monkeyshining and passing the hat while the world is ablaze on the
brink of disruption.

Good wishes to those good souls who would disinfect the films and bring
their shows to a recognizable semblance of refinement, but all power to any and
every effort to convert them to a responsive realization of their moral delin-
quency in the service of humanity.

Clifford Howard.

Switzerland . From Deslazv's film, " La Cite Universitaire de Paris."

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The nine innocent Scottsboro boys when arrezted.

SCOTTSBORO

Some of the readers of Close Up may have seen Cabin in the Cotton, a
film shown in London, all too briefly, last March. It was the story of the
struggle between the white planters, the masters, and the " poor whites,"
the agricultural workers in the southern states of America. Starvation and
wage-cuts drove the workers to organise themselves to protest for the right
to live. In the course of the film a lynching took place. The worker was
hunted with bloodhounds, lynched in a swamp. A film, yes — But these very
things are happening all the time in America. And brutally atrocious as they
are for white workers they are worse for the Negroes. What has tightened
up all the screws in these murders and frame-ups of Negroes so that not a week
goes by without new manifestations of this vicious race-hatred ?

Two things. Firstly, the white labourers are beginning to see that their
lives are bound up with the miseries of their black neighbours, and that they
themselves are no better off. The " white superiority " (instilled since slavery
ceased as a name but not as an ever progressively worse economic bondage) is
growing threadbare. The white working-class is beginning to get together with
the black, beginning to protect the Negroes that are shot down by sheriffs and
posses for resisting evictions (as happened with the Tallapoosa share-croppers
last December) . White land-lords and authorities are afraid of this increasing
sympathy between poor whites and black peasants ; they want to put a stop
to it. The second factor is the immense publicity and outcry about the
scandalous legal conduct of the Scottsboro case.

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Recall the facts: March 25, 1931, white and black hoboes are
hidden up and down the length of a freight-train going from Chatta-
nooga to Memphis, Tennessee. All penniless, no fares, looking for
work. A row breaks out in one of the trucks — the white tramps object
to the black tramps traveUing with them and try to throw them off. (This
is " white superiority "). The whites don't get the best of it, so they jump off
(all but one Orville Gilley, who is pulled back by one of the Negroes to save his
life as the train is speeding up). The whites telephone the next station, " stop
the niggers who've dared to fight with us." At the station the train is searched,
nine Negro lads are found in it, in different cars, some of them don't know
there's been a fight. Three white boys are found as well. All are charged with
vagrancy, told to get out of that county at once. And then, suddenly . . . two
of the white boys, when searched, are found to be girls in men's overalls.
The race-hatred bursts out, the stock accusation. It is " rape." Questioned,
examined by doctors, these two girls deny and show no signs of it. But they
were wretchedly ill-paid mill hands, and well-known prostitutes as well.
A night in jail — grilling by the police — next day, realising they will get
sentences anyway, they admit the rape. The nine Negroes have been savagely
beaten ; this is visible at the " trial " which takes place 10 days later. Pre-
vented from communicating with parents, no lawyer to defend them other
than a Ku Klux Klan state attorney and one assigned by the court who tells
them to plead guilty, they continue to protest their innocence. Victoria Price,
the most hard-boiled of the two girls, now comes out with a wealth of detail —
she points to the boys who assaulted her, to those who attacked Ruby Bates.
Knives and guns, she says, were at their throats ; but no knives or guns were
found. And Orville Gilley who was along with them all the time ? The state
won't call his evidence (it might not tally with the rape lie) ; the state says he
is weak-minded, etc. Orville Gilley disappears. And Victoria Price is now
jubilant ; the judge commends her as a good witness. Ruby Bates, however,
is so confused in her testimony, it rings so false, that they tell her to shut up.
The boys are tried in pairs — the little court-room at Scottsboro bristles with
the lynch spirit. And outside, because this trial is held purposely on " horse-
swapping day," a fair-day, a mob of 10,000 is howling and drinking around a
brass band that is playing " There'll be a hot time in the old town to-night,"
bursting into cheers as each expected verdict is announced. This verdict is the
death penalty- The boys are all under 20. Roy Wright, aged 13, gets a
life sentence. The trials have been rushed through. Doctors' evidence
(sufficient in itself to prove the rape story an entire fabrication) is totally
disregarded, and none of the white boys in the fight on the train is called as
witness. Legally speaking, this trial is unconstitutional. The 13th, 14th and
15th amendments passed after abolition in 1865 state that Negroes must serve
on juries, but in the southern states not one Negro ever serves on juries.
The " legal lynching " triumphs, the frame-up is complete. And the mob is
told there's " enough juice in the power-house to burn up the niggers " ;
electrocution is fixed for July, and the case is one more purely local southern
affair.

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International Relief, New York.

But immediately after this travesty of justice the news got out and the
International Labor Defence sent lawyers from New York to undertake an
appeal, and began a mass campaign to arouse protests from workers, intellec-
tuals and all classes of sympathisers in every country. The appeal was based
on the fact of the over-powering lynch-atmosphere during the three days of
the trials and on the evident mis-direction of justice ; but in March, 1932,
exactly one year after the arrests, the Alabama Supreme Court maintained
the death verdicts on seven of the boys, and directed that Eugene Williams
(also aged 13 when sentenced to death) should be re-tried in the juvenile
court. Although this is now a year and a half ago, no such re-trial has taken
place.

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The task of the International Labor Defence has been colossal. Huge
sums have had to be raised for legal costs. It has had to fight the reactionary
National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples (a Negro organisa-
tion which, in the face of all cases to the contrary that are piling up still
treacherously avers that " justice and fair-mindedness " towards the Negro
can be obtained in southern courts). It has organised mass meetings all over
the United States at which the parents of the boys, southern-state Negroes
who had never left home and virtual slavery, have aroused the indignation of
millions. It has sent Ada Wright, mother of two of the boys, and J. Louis
Engdahl, its secretary, to 13 European countries in the summer of 1932, where
both encountered every obstacle the governments of these countries could put
in their way, from attempts to debar them to imprisonment. And everywhere
Mrs. Wright and Engdahl have stirred up mass indignation.

In November, 1932, the case was brought to the Supreme Court in
Washington which granted a re-trial, and this took place in April of this year.

Decatur is about 50 miles from Scottsboro, and it was obvious that the
same frenzied lynch-spirit would exist there. The defence lawyers had
demanded but been refused charge of venue to the big town of Birmingham.
A small country town, as like Scottsboro as possible, best suited the Alabama
authorities. They were more than ever bent on killing these Negroes. The
first week was spent mainly on arguing legal points. Defence attorney
Samuel Leibowitz kept on asking for the jury-roll to be produced in court —
5,000 names of jurors and not a Negro amongst them. He asked for the
quashing of the indictment on Heywood Patterson, the first boy to be re-tried,
on grounds of this illegality of exclusion of Negro jurors. This was over-
ruled by judge Horton. They brought the boys into Decatur and lodged them
in the jail. Having spent over two years in a prison staring at the electric
chair, now, by chance, they found their cells faced an old painting of a gallows.
As at Scottsboro the town was like an armed camp. While Ruby Bates was
repudiating the lies of her first evidence two lynch mobs formed and came
towards the town because " the trial was taking too long." The militia
stopped them. Military and state authorities kept on telling the reporters to
keep as quiet as possible about the whole proceedings. Leibowitz, other
defence attorneys and the two white witnesses for the boys had to be guarded
by soldiers. After the first two days in court the southerners took to openly
insulting the defence lawyers, and the state prosecutor, Knight, could not
control his rage and shook his first at Heywood Patterson, shouting " that
black thing over there." The Negroes, who throughout the case showed a
determined and militant spirit despite all kinds of intimidation and who
attended in large numbers, and the two coloured reporters for the Negro press,
were of course put in a pen apart from the whites. The atmosphere was
volcanic with hatred. Propaganda was made that " Jew money from the
north " was defending Negroes ; the house of a Negro witness in the next
boy's trial was burned down, a white worker beaten for giving facts about the
court proceedings to the Negro inhabitants . . . Later a gang broke into the
house of one of the counsels for the defence and tried to destroy the legal records.

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Victoria Price's testimony was merely a repetition of her first rape story,
but was torn to pieces by Leibowitz who again and again proved her to be a
liar. Yet, on this testimony, but more specifically to uphold the white prestige
of the rotten south, Heywood Patterson was again sentenced to death.
Immediate notice of appeal was given, and the trial was then and there stopped
— all the other cases to follow suit in the result of this appeal.

A month later, June, 1933, Judge Horton, the same judge who had
passed death sentence, was forced into granting the appeal at the Alabama
Supreme Court. This he did saying that the evidence preponderated greatly
in favour of the accused. This is another partial victory, but there must be
no illusions as to the intentions of the Alabama lynch courts. These intentions
are that the boys shall die. That the judge is not favourable to the defence,
as at first might seem, is made indisputably clear by the fact that he has
refused to grant bail for the prisoners pending this new re-trial. And meanwhile
ex-senator Heflin, an active Ku Klux Klan member, has offered his services
to state prosecutor Knight and is whipping up the lynch spirit for the new
trial set for October. Everyone knows that the boys are innocent, and that
if they had been white they would have been freed long ago. State-law keeps
the case in Alabama ; and yet it is in Roosevelt's power to order their release
as it has been in the power of Governor Miller of Alabama to free them all
along.

Now a jail, in which five Negroes provenly having had no connection
with the murder of a white girl in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, has been broken into
and three of them have been lynched. This happened on August 13th just
a few weeks before the coming re-trial. " We want no more Scottsboros " —
that is the cry. No more Scottsboros . . . but already this year 20 cases of
lynching. The Teague of Struggle for Negro Rights who sends these figures
says they are far beneath the truth ; many lynchings and murders of Negroes
never get into the press, are hushed up, not officially noticed, can't be traced.

But they will not kill the spirit of the Negroes which is becoming more
militant as the terror increases. And as token of this, as token of the fortitude
of the Scottsboro boys in the unspeakable tortures of 1\ years in the death
cells of Gadsden, Kilby, Birmingham, beaten by the wardens, made to witness
executions, told " it's your turn next " while the electric chair was dragged at
intervals in front of their cells, witness Roy Wright, the child of 13 ... " they
offered him 500 dollars to turn state evidence and say the other boys had
committed the rape, but he refused — so they knocked out two of his teeth."

Nancy Cunard.

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279

" The Deserter," V. I. Pudovkiix.
"he De'serteur," V. I. Pudovkin.

PSEUDOMORPHIC FILM; NUMBER TWO

Cineastes on holiday will, in financial probability, turn to Spain ; and,
for expediency of ocean travel, probably to Andalusia.

This pseudomorphic film is an Andalusian travel film, a propaganda film,
a film of warning . . .

DIALOGUE NOTE. The people of the South possess very few things.
. The traveller sits down to his coffee in a small-town cafe. He draws
his cigarette case from his pocket. About five Spaniards pounce. " Oh !
it is so interesting. You see you can put cigarettes inside and then you shut
it up and place it in your pocket." The people of the South are very injured
if the traveller does not tell the story back to them. " Yes ! you put cigarettes
inside and you bring it out of your pocket .

Ask a direct question and the answer will be given in the idiom of the
guidebook. " It always rains like this here : generally, it never rains .

NIGHT SHOT. Moorish Love. . . . Men in tense attitudes before
blank wall. Closer view : grilles sunk in the otherwise blank masonry.
Behind the grilles lurk fat dames. For two or three years the men have nightly
conversations : afterwards, the parents recognise the suitor.

CROWD SCENE. " Musica " every Sunday night in any Andalusian
town. Tables and chairs arranged in a field. Around the tables circulate
the entire population. In the dusk the scene is atmospheric. Where is the

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" musica " ? One man stands apart and takes his psychic temperature with
a cornet !

[And the songs, the cheerless songs, the women sing about their work !]

BULLFIGHT. LJnsuitable ladies in mantillas. Sweating peasants
drink aad eat things (including green worms) from buckets. It is all slow, slow,
slow. . . (it's a long worm that has not turning !) . . .

ALHAMBRA. Official photos of what the alhambra looked like in 1911
and what it looks like today. Local literature praising rebuilt Moorish archi-
tecture for its intricate lacework which looks "as if the architect had been
aided by a swarm of bees ? " And who wants architecture built by bees ?
Guides, having learnt their English in the Berlitz School, bustle up with, " I
Berlit, I Berlit, I show you round I " . . . " That is a very NOVEL dog ;
you will not see another dog like that in the whole of Spain ! "

EXTERIORS. Golden eagles. Ravines with cave dwellers and insincere
dogs which help with the washing. Wild bulls in deserted monastries neglect-
ing to ring the angelus. Snakes : " Go away, ekanes ! " Fields bandaged
off by luzuriously tinted flowers. . .' .

PRODUCTION NOTE. The best sherry in the world for threepence a
glass, and cognac and rum added to coffee without charge. But, for a drink
to quench the mid-day thirst there is no ordinarily priced wine which is not
resinous, no mineral water which is not either filthy to the palate or rank
poison. How many fall for a vision of mountain spring water with a spar of
ice in it ? THEN . . . sitting on a bucket (the right way up !) in a small
hotel instructing mice, in a loud voice, not to stare !

TRANSPORT. Spanish trains are apt to turn into tanks and wander
across country.

FOOD. Coarse and ample. A vendor will take water from a drain to
make his ices.

TEMPERATURE CHART. There is the sad fable of an Englishmen who
walked out of a hotel in a blue suit : in a few seconds his suit had turned white.
The Englishman was too ashamed to return to his room and had to work his
passage back to England half across the world !

FILMIC CONSEQUENCE. Andalusia should be explored only on the
films, where everything can be seen as a picture, not allowing the horrors to
break away from the pattern. O.B.

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Maria Jeritza dans " Grossfiirstin Alexandra," avec Paid Hartmann
Regie Wilhelm Thiele.

Annabella, star of " Sonnenstrald," a new film by Fejos.
Annabella, vedette de " Sonnenstrahl," dernier film de Fejos.

Gusiav Frohlich and Annabella in " Sontienstrahl.'
Gustav Frohlich et Annabella dans " Sontienstrahl.'

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First stills of Paul Robeson in " The Emperor Jones," directed by Dudley Murphy and released by

United Artists.

Premieres cliches de " L'Empereur Jones " avec Paul Robeson. Regie: Dudley Murphy, distribution:

United Artists.

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COMMENT AND REVIEW

Sound City of Shepperton has announced to all and sundry that it intends
to make * films of national subjects showing the life and character of the British
people as they really are." Having heard this kind of talk a score of times
from every other studio, we were inclined to be sceptical, until we saw Doss
House, Sound City's latest production.

Doss House almost marks a revolution in British film production. We
had difficulty in believing our eyes, for the story of this film takes place entirely
within the confines of a common lodging house. " When do they turn on the
sex appeal," we asked ourselves. " Take heart, the cabaret scene will come on
in a few moments," we murmured. But there was no sex appeal, not even a
single woman, and no cabaret. Instead we had a poignant character study
of some of London's down-and-outs who are permitted by a generous society
to take shelter in the night provided they can raise the sum of ninepence

True, some sort of a plot had to be included, otherwise the Board of Trade
would not have accepted it for Quota. But we are willing to excuse the story
of the detective and reporter wTho come to the doss house in search of a criminal.
What is important is that a British film company has dared to dramatise the
lives of people for whom the last word in luxury is a bed to sleep in at night.
To do that takes some courage. It is against the whole tradition of the
commercial film. A film without women ? A film about down-and-outs ?
Preposterous, old boy ! All the wise-acres prophesied a box-office flop. As
usual they were wrong. Doss House wiU make money because more and more
people are wanting films which bear some relation to life, life as it really is and
not as hundred-thousand-doUar-a-year magnates imagine it to be.

We have been saying for years that the real stuff of drama is to be found in
the streets of the towns and cities, but this is the first time that a British film
companjr has made the same discovery.

Curious to learn more about this unit which cheerfully defies box-office
convention, I travelled down to Shepperton and met John Baxter who directed
Doss House. He is a modest feUow. " British films must strike out on a line
of their own," he said, " and not just imitate Hollywood product because
Hollywood can do that sort of stuff better than anyone in the world." Wise
words from a man who puts his ideas into practice. Baxter is now working on
a film of English agricultural life and he has a grand opportunity to put the real
English countryside on the screen.

The Sound City studios are ideally located on a site covering seventy
acres of ground with almost every type of scenery on their front doorstep.
The actual studios, covering some thirty thousand square feet contain all the
most modern equipment and I came away with the impression that this com-
paratively new concern is trying hard to bring new ideas and conceptions to
the making of British films. They have made a fine start with Doss House.
Let's hope they can keep it up. R. Bond.

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291

FILMWORK IN VIENNA.

There is work again in the film studios of Vienna. German, French and
even Austrian firms produce their films here, actors from all countries find work,
and for a time it looks in Vienna's biggest studio — the Sascha studio — as if the
unemployment problem had been solved. That is of course an illusion only —
a dream which exists for the time of one's visit to the studio.

Just now a film is being finished in Vienna which — when it will be shown in
the cinemas of the world — wiU certainly help to make Austria and Vienna
popular. Maria Jeritza, one of the best and most popular opera singers of
Vienna who is known all over the world and who has enchanted both Europe
and America by her voice, and Paul Hartmann the famous actor of the Wiener
Burgtheater (the Jedermann of the Salsburg festival 1933) are the leading
characters. The opera of Vienna still one of Austria's most important active
properties, appears for the first time in a film. Hartmann was to be seen several
times on the screen already, and has attracted the attention of the film public
in the film version of the Rosenkavalier. Also in smaller parts the Burg and the
Oper are represented.

Franz Lehar — known to the world as the composer of Viennese operettas
wrote the music ; — in short : We see the " Viennese note " which is so much
wanted abroad, is represented in this film in a worthier way than it is in most of
the many so-called Viennese films.

TRAVELLING CINEMA FOR THE COUNTRY

NEW COMPANY IN BRISTOL.

A mobile cinema is to be put on the road to travel the larger villages and
small towns in the West of England where there is no permanent cinema.

The promoters of the scheme, Mobile Talkies and Sound Equipment, Ltd.,
have formed a new company with headquarters in Bristol.

ALIBIS

A vast number of people with insincere jobs are employed in the big
studios so that the other man can always be in the wrong. It works this way.
The scenario editor passes a hopeless story because he can get a low estimate on

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production costs. After a few days of work, the scenario editor asks to see the
rushes. He knows they must be hopeless and he says so loudly. The story
has to be revamped but the extra expense is charged to the production depart-
ment and not to the scenario department ! The director then turns furiously
on his assistant who points to the supervisor who points to the production
manager who points to . . . O.B.

For the first time in its history, the city of Baltimore, Md. formally recognized the films as an
art by putting on an exhibition in the new 83,000,000 Enoch Pratt Library, owned and operated
by the city, of photographs, books and manuscripts arranged and annotated by Herman G.
Weinberg. The entire exhibit was from the private collection of Mr. Weinberg and, instead of
being relegated to some obscure corner of the library (as was the New York Public Library exhibit
of the history of the films), this exhibit covered all the available show cases on the main and second
floors.

The exhibit was named after Paul Rotha's book, The Film Till Now, and carried the sub-
caption : "A Summary and Survey of the Beginnings and Development of the film as an Art
Form." The exhibit was divided into the following sections :

I. — S. M. Eisenstein, His Theories and Work. Potemkin, Old and New, Ten Days. etc.

With special reference to Que Viva Mexico ! and the legal battle with Upton Sinclair.
II. — Charlie Chaflin, His Theories and Work. His comedies. A Woman of Paris and its
influence. Books on Chaplin.

III, — Ernst Lubitsch — His German Period. His Hollywood period.

IV. — Erich von Stroheim — His Theories and Work. Special reference to the case of Greed,

The Merry Widow, Foolish Wives, Wedding March, etc.
V. — Fritz Lang — His Theories and Work. Special exhibit on The Nibelungen. Special
Reference to M.

VI. — Film Personalities — Directors, scenarists, stars, production stills. Europe and
America.
VII. — The American Film.
VIII. — Dr. Caligari and its influence.
IX. — The Film in Medicine (Tisse's Ceasarian film, etc.)
X. — The Experimental Film (Ruttman, Fischinger, Eggling, etc.).
XL — Three Spectacular Films — The Nibelungen — Secrets of the Orient and The Passion

of Joan of Arc, with discourse on their treatment.
XII. — Fiction and Drama as Sources for the Film (Illustrations of noteable books and
plays which served as film material — Karamazov , Crime and Punishment , etc.)

XIII. — The Ethnological - Film. (Travel, adventure and exploration). With special

emphasis on the Soviet contribution to this type of film.

XIV. — The Russian Film — Dovzhenko. Pudovkin, Eisenstein, Ermler, etc.

XV. — Rene Clair. — Sous le Toils de Paris, Le Million & a Nous la Liberie. Eiffel Tower.
XVa. — G. W. Pabst — Pandora, Secrets of a Soul, Westfront, 1918, Kameradschaft.
XVI. — F. W. Murnau — The Last Laugh, Faust, Sunrise, 4 Devils, Tabu.
XVII. — Emil Jannings as Screen Artist — Jannings in a symposium of his greatest roles since
The Loves of Pharoah.

XVIII. — Apotheosis of the Sound Film — 3 great examples — Die Dreigroschenoper — Maedchen

in Uniform — Ecstasy.

BOOK REVIEWS

Because our Culture (now in its Indian Summer) is a dynamic one of inter-
playing forces (as contrasted with the somatic nature of earlier Cultures), it
becomes harder and harder not to see film application in each new significant

CLOSE UP

293

book. One reads a treatise on the Quantum Theory and has the urge to
formulate a new theory of cutting. There is scenario force in the change from
Einstein's world of equilibrium, through Lemaitre's local stagnation of energy,
to de Sitter's universe. From book to movie as it were by Lorentz's transfor-
mation !

But no relative reason need be given for the first book on the quarter's list.

When would-be directors ask Francis Bruguiere if there are helpful books
which they could study, he advises Watkins' manual of Photography. Some
aspirants do go as far as getting this excellent work from the Public Library :
has one read it ? Yet, qualified work with the hand camera is the best
apprenticeship the aspirant can give himself. Photography Without Failures
(Routledge, 2/6) has taken every excuse from the lazy. Usual faults of
negative and print are classified in a beginner's pictorial A. B.C. by a series of
illustrations. For instance, a print from a soft negative is reproduced on soft
paper ; then a print from the same negative on normal paper ; then a print
from the same negative on vigorous paper. The book, indeed, is so simple and
explanatory that it is hard to remember that this effective method is presented
for the first time.

[BRACKETS FOR DIALOGUE AS BOOK REVIEW. The Home
Cinema, by J. P. Lawrie (Chapman & Hall. 3/6).

Herbert Jones. " Mr. Rin Tin Can and Mr. Rin Tin Can't."

O.B. " Mr. Lawrie says that amateurs can even make talkies. Tell the
players to perform a set drama of not more than two hundred feet. In screen-
ing, hide the players behind a curtain and speak their lines off. Place a loud
speaker conspicuously before the screen and a loudly humming electric
fan . . ! ! "

H.J. " WOW ! But I think I could suggest some other filmettes than
these. What about the milkman delivering bottles while a young couple
advance to ask, ' What time does it get dark round here ? ' "

O.B. " There's a Bibliography at the back of the book. Publishers'
names and addresses aren't given. And it says that Close Up is a shilling
monthly."

H.J. " Our agent will call I "]

An Objectivists Anthology, by Louis Zukofsky (Bruce Humphries, Boston.
9/-), belongs to the province of the cineaste because of Mr. Zukofsky 's manifesto
on poetry :

294

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An objective — rays of the object brought to a focus,

An objective — nature as a creator — desire for what is objectively perfect.

The poems don't come off because they are too long in the sense that some
lines could be left out : no modern poem should be a long poem in the sense that
it carries extra luggage. What can be written out in prose isn't the poem.
But it is a book for the cineaste to buy for the short works and for the Mary
Butts poem which, although it seems to have been created apart from Mr.
Zukofsky's programme, is a lovely thing to have around.

" Still, the fourth man must be powerful enough to turn ugly, smoke-
infested London into a Paradisal city, with golden radiances circling around."
Thus thinks the undergraduate hero of The Magnificent, by Terence Greenidge
(The Fortune Press. 7/6), as he trains into Saint Eustace. He seeks work in a
film agent's office and falls electricaUy for a juvenile he meets in the cloakroom.
But the juvenile frequents the more profitable company of a rich producer.
All for love's sake, the juvenile allows himself an affair on the side with an extra
lady. The hero, without losing his admiration for the juvenile, also falls for
the extra dame. . . . Here are the psychological relationships which Leontine
Sagan wished fruitlessly to introduce into Men of Tomorrow.

So we turn back to Photography Without Failures to look at the negatives
and to wonder if any Hollywood inventor thought of making a special grainy
film for scenes in the rain !

OSWELL BLAKESTON.

PERIODICALS.

" The film is every day invading the realms where once it was regarded
askance. The July issue of The Bookman is one of the latest to accord it entry
to its pages, and Chaliapin, Jean Cocteau, Oliver Baldwin, Oswell Blakeston,
and others are discussing it from various viewpoints." (Kinematograph
Weekly. July 6th).

The July issue of The Bookman, therefore, will commend itself to cineastes.

Readers of Close Up are seekers of discriminating entertainment and
should be interested to hear of the production of the fourth number of Soma.
Among those who have contributed to the first four numbers of this remark-
able magazine are such authors and artists as : T. F. Powys, James Hanley,
Rhys Davies, L. A. Pavey, Oswell Blakeston, Pearl Binder, Mary Butts. Soma
is published by K. S. Bhat, 61 Southwark Park Road, London, S.E.16, in an
edition of 500 copies, of which 400 are for sale at 7/6 each ; also there is a signed
edition of 50 copies on Vellum of which 30 are for sale at 21/- each. The
editions are issued in attractive book format.

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295

The Socialist Review is once again a monthly ; and, under the editorship
of Rudolph Messel, is making fresh claims for our attention ; one of the most
important being a serial by Upton Sinclair which was too outspoken to find
refuge in the pages of any other journal.

Documents 33, April-August. A monthly review. Cordier, 6, Rue
Gabrielle, Brussels, 4 frs.

Documents is considerably more than a good film review, complete with
able criticism, articles on the film in its relation to life and thought, Film News
(and film news) and beautifully reproduced stills. Less shy than are our own of
appearing in the company of filmologists, writers of standing here contribute
articles on literary, artistic and social subjects..

Admirable, one thinks, turning the pages and delighting, at first, in the
sheer style of Documents, from its typography, which is nothing less than a
benediction to the eye, to the perfection of the lay-out, comparable to the
elegant arrangement of items in a French shop-window. Controlled, spacious,
effective to the limit of the term, so that one is beguiled before one has read a
word. And by no means prepared for the buffettings in store.

If, indeed, light can be said to administer blows. For the prime character-
istic of Documents is its clarity. Both in appearance and in reality. Vehement
clarity. Poised above current affairs, it casts its searchlight in all directions.
And states the results with an infectious brio. If, for example, you are not yet
clear as to the relationship between Freud, Karl Marx, and the super-realists,
if you do not yet see them as an indissoluble trinity, read Documents, par-
ticularly the May number.

If, so far, you have been either bored or puzzled by the solemnities and
puerilities passing themselves off as defences of super-realism, and the equally
solemn and puerile attacks (sometimes relieved by lashings of amusing satire)
professing to dispose of the movement, you will delight in an article in the April
number, a poetic interpretation, by Guy Mangeot, of the work of the sur-realiste
poet Paul Eluard.

You may or may not agree with M. Carlo Suares that all the powers that be
are materialists with the " mentality of ants," and that " the most formidable
hurricane of history is now at hand," but if you have heard of the Nouvelle
Revue Franfaise group, whose aim is to forestall the Communist Revolution in
France by bringing about a synthetic revolution, whose anti-capitalism wiU
not be the anti-capitalism of the Third International, and whose synthetic
nature is secured by the inclusion of two Communists on what may be called the
Board of Directors, you will be interested in M. Saures article on Revolutions
and Revolution, dedicated to Andre Gide, in the April number.

296

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Every country in the world is represented. We read of England's back-
wardness, accounted for by the fact that the traditional intelligentsia was too
proud to interest itself in the film and too stupid to understand its possibilities.
Only wfj,en the revolutionary Russian films were banned by the censor and
acquired the attraction of forbidden fruit, did it become good form to regard the
cinema otherwise than with disdain. It is admitted that since that time,
England has been making headway. D.R.

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numbers of Close Up previous to 1931. We are unable to
bind more sets as several numbers of each year are out
of print.

Available
Three issues of 1927.

About seven issues of 1928, covering the
early Russian film and the most important
developments of the silent German cinema.

A few odd numbers of 1929, with articles
on the beginnings of the sound film.

A very few numbers of 1930. The end
months of this year are completely out of
print. 1930 covers however the most im-
portant period of sound film development.

Any three of the above will be sent to any address in
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any address abroad for three shillings. We have no copies
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297

" Mr. Cousins is a man of vast practical experience and I
am happy to be able to endorse the majority of his views." —

JACK HULBERT

FILMLAND
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" Startling changes are impending,"
says the author-E. G. COUSINS

,, . edition

conducting us on a tour of his territory and helping
us to draw our own conclusions therefrom. Start- 6/- net

ling organic changes, taking place beneath the calm
surface of film-production, are revealed and dis-
cussed. The book gives a clear, unbiassed and
authoritative account of film-production as it has
been, is now, and will be. No one inside or out-
side the industry can fail to profit by its matter or
be entertained by its manner.

WITH A PREFACE BY JACK HULBERT

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298

Erno Metzner

Hungarian Art Director

. . CollaLorator witL G W". Pabst
for trie last seven years

. . and art director of many important
films in Berlin from 1920 onward

. . is associated witli tfie following
films recently known to England

W^esttront, 1918, Kameradsclialt,
Atlantide, etc.

. . OBLIGED TO CEASE
WORK IN GERMANY

. . Seeks Englisk Contracts

All Enquiries to Erno Mztsner, c/o Cl^se Up

299

COLOUR IN INTERIOR DECORATION

JOHN M. HOLMES
Containing in addition to the text 8 full-page plates of
colour diagrams illustrating the theory of colour re-
lationship— 12 exemplary colour schemes chosen from
the National Collections — 9 modern colour schemes
for interiors. Price 25s. Postage Is.

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This book is essentially practical throughout and is fully
illustrated by clear and self-explanatory drawings made
by Mr. Gunn himself, which show almost at a glance the
points which he has in mind.

The book contains about 120 pages cr. 4to, bound in
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Complete Catalogue sent free on request.

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303

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announce for future issues

A Series of Essays on the American Civil W ar

JOHN CALHOUN by Henry Bamford Parkes

EDMUND RUFFIN by Allen Tate

RHETT AND THE DIALECTIC OF SECESSION., by Andrew Nelson Lytle

BATTLES AND LEADERS : PHOTOGRAPHS: 1861-65

With a note on Matthew B. Brady . . . . . . by Charles Flato

A Series of Essays on Nineteenth Century Revolutionists
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A Series of Topical Letters from abroad

IRELAND

FRANCE

SPAIN

by Max Nomad

Eric Boden
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and from England, Russia and Germany

A NOTE ON AN UNDERGRADUATE CONTEST

ALEXANDER BLOK, an essay with translations

AN INTRODUCTION TO RUSSIAN PAINTING

WILLIAM JAMES, an essay

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THE CHICAGO EXPOSITION, a chronicle

TROTSKY'S HISTORY, a review

YOUNGER NOVELISTS, a review

GERTRUDE STEIN, E. E. CUMMINGS, MABEL
DODGE LUHAN, a review

STORIES .

by Dudley Filts
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BOOK REVIEWS

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In the world of the cinema the amateur movement is rapidly
assuming an importance similar to that of the amateur
dramatic movement in the legitimate theatre. Croups of
enthusiasts everywhere are coming together to form
amateur cinematograph clubs ; individual cine-camera owners
are making continual experiment ; competitions arc being
arranged and prizes offered ; everywhere there is a
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Three out of five of the issues in any year will form special numbers,
and will be even more generously illustrated.

No. 1 has just appeared. It is a Special Number and comprises
80 pages, with 125 illustrations and a cover specially designed

by Picasso. Amongst the contributions may be mentioned : —

An article by Andre Breton : " Picasso dans son element," illustrated with
60 photographs of recent sculpture by Picasso, hitherto unpublished.

A set of hitherto unpublished drawings by Picasso, after Grunewald't

" Crucifixion " in the Colmar Museum.

"Une Anatomie" — a suite of 18 recent drawings by Picasso, also hitherto

unpublished. These are printed on special paper.

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paper.

" Le Miroir de Baudelaire," by Paul Eluard, with a portrait of Baudelaire,
a drawing and an engraving by Henri Matisse.

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Editor : K. Macpherson
Assistant Editors : Bryher ; Oswell Blakeston
Published by POOL
London Office : 26 Litchfield Street, Charing Cross Road, W.C.2
Swiss Office : c/o F. Chevalley, Case Postale, Carouge s/ Geneve.

Contents

PAGE

Turkish Prelude. Marie Seton .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 309

Lot in Sodom. Marianne Moore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Two Documentaries. R. Bond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Manifesto on the Documentary Film. O.B. . . . . . . . . . . 325

The Primeval Age of Cinema. Trude Weiss . . . . . . . . . . 326

The Pabst Arrival. Frank Daugherty . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Portugal. Alves Costa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

The Historical Inception of Stage and Film. Pennethorne Hughes . . . . 341

Symphonic Cinema. Clifford Howard . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

The Emperor Jones. Herman G. Weinberg . . . . . . . . . . 351

Japan as seen in Films. Yagushi Ogino . . . . . . . . .... 353

Thunder over Mexico. Upton Sinclair . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Comment and Review . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Close Up Contributors and a Murder ; A Cinema Arts Film Club ;
Paris Margin Note ; Regulations governing the II International
Exhibition of Cinematography ', The New Belgian Weekly.

London Correspondent :
Paris Correspondent :
Geneva Correspondent :
Hollyivood Correspondent :
Moscow Correspondent :
Vienna Correspondent :

Robert Herring
Jean Lenauer
F. Chevalley
Clifford Howard
P. Attasheva
Trude Weiss

Subscription Rate.

ENGLAND . . . . 15 shillings per year
SWITZERLAND . . 15 francs per year

All'other Countries . . 15 shillings (English-) per year

' A Nation Awakes," the first film of Ertcgroul Mushin. An Ipek Production.
' L'Eveil a" une Nation," premier film d'Ertogroul Mushin. Production Ipek.

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Vol. X. No. 4 December, 1933

TURKISH PRELUDE

By Marie Seton.

Hollywood mania, like mass hysteria is easy to account for but difficult
to control ; countries at every stage of civilization are potential victims and
the more recent the Westernization the more virulent is the attack. The
worst element in this Hollywood scourge is that either it pushes the impetus of
smaller and younger nations to create their own cinema aside, or, else, forces
them by competition and example into its own imbecile crudity, for it is the
worst, and not the best, examples of American movie that are exported to
Eastern Europe and Asia.

It is tragic-comic to see the Indian film magazines imitating the quick fire
snappiness of America's movie papers, and find their own Americanized love
lyrics advertised in the " Supreme ! Romantic ! Thrills ! " jargon. It is
the same in the Balkans, though everyone of the Near Eastern countries are
fitted to develop their own native industry when they can escape the deadening
influence of Ballyhoo.

Turkey, though freed from Capitulations and any undue interference from
foreigners is yet being led by the nose by Hollywood. Fox, for instance, is
scheduled to place twenty of their " year's greatest love story " products in
the ninety cinemas throughout Turkey, while Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and
Paramount keep competing representatives sipping coffee in spacious offices on
the Grand rue de Pera. Fairbank's old silent, The Thief of Bagdad, can draw
not inconsiderable audiences in Istanbul in the middle of the broiling summer,
while on the other side of the Grand Rue Pabst's delicious Opera de Quart'
Sous is shown to a handful of urchins, bored Turkish matrons and myself.

If Turkey was a barren country without a studio, or potential filmic
material in her own life and her post-Kemal Pasha history, then one would
resignedly accept the inevitable as one must in the case of Roumania. But,
Turkey has entered upon a new consciousness under Kemal Pasha, freed her
women, abolished the fez, symbol of the old Turkish servitude, curtailed the

309

310

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"A Nation Awakes" Ipek Films, Istanbul.

"L'Eveil d'une Nation." Films Ipek. Constantinople.

312

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" As God is One My Word is One," a Turkish operetta by Ertogroul Mushin.
" Dieu est un etje n'ai qu'une Parole " operette turque d' Ertogroul Mushin.

activity of American missionaries and is developing a new system which has
potentially the same raw film material as Soviet Russia. Moreover the Turks
take to acting, the women too, in spite of their recent appearance into the
world of activity, like ducks to water, and there is already in Istanbul a
thoroughly equipped studio.

This studio, the first in Turkey, was completed a year ago under the
auspices of nine brothers, the Ipekcis who have now formed the Ipek Film
Company. For years these brothers managed the best cinemas in Turkey,
true with a greater instinct to commerce than to art, but, what they lack in
artistic appreciation they certainly make up in business acumen.

They employ a German sound technician and have installed as their one
and only regisseur, Ertogroul Muhsin who studied cinema in Paris, Berlin
and Moscow.

Muhsin's first film for Ipek was an interesting though imperfect effort at a
100% national film. In character and object A Nation Awakes is the Turkish
equivalent to Eisenstein's Ten Days, a synthesis between the documentary and
the art film, its subject being Moushtafa Kemal Pasha's overthrow of the
Sultan and the evacuation of the AUied Armies. It is a national epic and as
such it has dramatic meaning even when it is filmically insignificant.

Since it is inspired by the awakening of a new Asiatic mentality, a mentality
that has passed from apathy into self-consciousness A Nation Awakes has a
natural strength and a simplicity of purpose which has some of the emotional
appeal of the early Russians. In his choice of natural types and even more in
his symbolism Muhsin shows the influence of Goskino; but he lacks the emotional
conviction of Eisenstein or Pudovkin and his symbols, the bored ministers of the
Sultan, the ornate uniforms, the headless diplomats and the Sultan's carriage
are catalogued with thoroughness rather than edited dynamically while
Muhsin's chief fault is his inclination to elaborate incidents which have little
that is either filmic or dramatic in their essence thus destroying the rythmic
flow of the film. Occasionally old documentary material, shot during the war,
has been cut in with good effect.

314

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This film indicates a style which if developed systematically might produce
another Turksib, but at present it is a solitary cuckoo in a commercial nest
and it is clear that Muhsin's fate is to develop a Turkish operetta, influenced by
Germany with Westernized music and a chorus of bathing belles.

The first effort in this direction was // My Wife Should Cheat Me. Tech-
nically it is far superior to A Nation Awakes, but it is imitative rather than
creative and though it expresses the exterior form of Turkish modernity it
fails to express its peculiar and impressive spirit. Muhsin's other operettas are
My Darling Hairdresser and As God is One My Word is One, all of which fulfil
their purpose as good entertainment.

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315

From Paul Rotha's " Contact." Fishermen on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Palestine.
Du film " Contact " de Paul Rotha. Pecheurs sur les rives de la mer de Galilee.

In these operettas Ertogroul Muhsin is inclined to work with a stationary
camera, a general tendency since the advent of sound ; but, remembering that
he is working in film form and not theatre presentation he quite unexpectedly
cuts in a good sequence of montage. For example, in the first part of If My
Wife Should Cheat Me there is a sequence in which girls are diving and swim-
ming, a sequence in which Muhsin is experimenting along the line of Pudovkin's
theory of counterpoint in image and the use of slow motion.

At the moment Turkish cinema is governed by commercial ideals because
of its competition with Hollywood, and it is a most unfortunate thing that the
Ipekci brothers, who are conscious that Turkish cinema must express Turkish
mentality, should have their studio in Istanbul, a city without a national
character instead of Angora or even Smyrna where the new Turkey is coming
into existence. Turkey is certainly leading the East in enlightened thinking,
but it can only lead the way to the cinema as a new art of Asia provided that
its cinema becomes a positive creation of Asia and not a negative imitation of
Europe.

316

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Another scene from " A Nation Awakes." A Turkish Film, directed by Ertogroul Mushin
Une autre scene de " L'Eveil d'une Nation."

CLOSE VP

317

A dramatic photo by Francis Bruguiere which appears on the cover of " Murder Among Friends,"
a detective novel which is noticed in " Comment and Review."

Une photo dramatique de Francis Bruguiere qui orne la couverture du roman policier " Murder Amon^
Friends " commente dans " Commentaires et revues."

LOT IN SODOM

Lot in Sodom, derived from the Book of Genesis — and not a talkie —
is the best art film I have seen. Directed and photographed by J. Sibley
Watson, Jr., and Melville Webber ; with music by Louis Siegel.*

You have wefts of cloud ; a temple surrounded by buildings set together
at various angles — greyed and unified in El Greco perspective (an air view)
and one of the best pictorial effects in the film ; a glittering vertebrae of
fire — the tree of life ; Lot's house with plaster walls, thick doors, and small
windows ; a market-place and the men who vexed Lot day by day. Lot
in profile, like a fresco, stands reading ; turns his back to you and is the
bowed, intense, darkly caparisoned, overclothed, powerful, helpless Jew — ■
talking, gesticulating, resisting. (Played by Friederich Haak, and not with
lapses). Lot's wife (Hildegarde Watson) is perhaps insurmountably the lissom
nymph, and fair, as companion figure to so grief-stricken and striking a piece
of archaeology as Lot ; but the rapt, listening premonitoriness of face and
attitudes throughout, are right ; and as part of the pause before the destruc-
tion, the figure running down steps with garments fluttering aside, is a drama-
tic ace. With it, the daughter (Dorothea Haus) is well harmonised. The
film is a thing of great strength and one has no wish, nor a very good chance,
to pick flaws ; but to an imagination based on the Child's Bible, the men
of Sodom do not look quite so responsibly sinister as the}' might, nor fully
oriental. High points are Lot's House — Morning, with the blur of waving
candle-flame on the undulating coarse-weave curtain ; the glass-black blood
quivering along a prostrate body ; the glistening elaborate lily with snake-
spots ; the tortoise-shell spotted pallor of the snake with beady eyes. Of the
Angel — first appearance (Lewis Whitbeck, Jr.) the real face, in its fixity,
against suggested wings, achieves genuine splendor.

As I was coming out of the playhouse I overheard an incorrigible movie-
unenthusiast say, " It has richness of imagination enough to last you a year
and makes you want to see a film every week." I agree. The painting-
and-poetry — an atmosphere of the preface to The Wings of a Dove, of
the later bloodcurdling poems of James Joyce, of E. E. Cummings'
elephant-arabesques at their unlabelled truculent best — is very nearly too
exciting for a patron of the old newsreel. One salvages from the commercial
ragbag a good bisection or strange-angle shot, but there, even a cum lande
creates no spinal chill, being intellectually unself -realised. Here, the camera

* Movie Makers says, " In this latest film, Dr. Watson and Mr. Webber have used
a technique similar to that of The Fall of the House of Usher but differing from the
latter in that it is smoother and more thoroughly controlled. In the new film, they have
achieved far greater photographic beauty — a beauty of mobile forms of light and shade
that is, at timss, bewildering in intensity. Movie Makers hopes that wider recognition
will be given these two experimentalists for certainly nothing in the professional field
ever has approached the subtlety of their technique."

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work, with a correlating of poetic influences — the Blake designs in the fire,
the Pascin, Giotto, Dore, and Joseph SteUa treatment, shows us wherein
slow motion, distortion, the sliding track, can be more legitimate than the
face to face stage-set. Personality coalescing with a piece of stone, the
obliterating cloud of doves, " the silver cord " and other historic colour, are
incontrovertibly conclusive for the art of the film.

An illusion of quiescence of which one is scarcely conscious should be
mentioned — that of not looking at just another motion-picture-house Derby
dash for the post. (Sensation of this kind, imparted by tested sensibility,
could be of interest to those who have been studying the effect of motion-
pictures on the sleep of children.) This principle, of control contributing to
the impression obliquely, again prevails in the chanted lines by Lot's wife,
against the body of the orchestra — somewhat as the recorded nightingale song
is drowned by the orchestra in Respighi's The Pines of Rome.

And the beauty which is on the head of the fat valley shall be a fading flower
And the stream thereof shall be turned to pitch.

From generation to generation it shall lie waste ; none shall pass through it forever

and ever.

And he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.

The mirth of the tabret eeaseth.

The song of them that rejoice endeth.

The joy of the harp eeaseth. (Isaiah).

Speech would be meaningless by comparison with the harrowing flute
for the writhing combatants, and the harp melody for the angel ; the music
is not the national anthem nor a passing band ; it teUs the story. As you
know better than anyone else does, how to open your combination safe,
a civilization that has reached an extreme of culture, is going to have pleasure,
will have it and is meting out justice to any man that interferes. But the
pleasure is not joy, it is strangling horror — the serpent that thrusts forward
rigid — and does not know it ever was anything else. We see luxury extin-
guished and hauteur collapse — with gaiety waning into anguish, fire, ashes,
dust.

Marianne Moore.

THE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF EDUCATIONAL CINEMATO-
GRAPHY.

For October, 1933, The International Review of Educational Cinematography
contains : Draft Convention for facilitating the International Circulation of
films of an Educational Character ; and
J. Cohen — The Psychology of the Public.
W. Gunther — The Organisation of the Rural Sound Film.
G. Rossi — Publicity in the Service of Cinematography, The " National Film

Library."

S. Milano — Points in Education by the Cinema.

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" Jamaica Produce." An E.M.B. film by Wright and Grierson.
" Produit de Jamalque." Un film E. M. B. de Wright et Grierson.

The photo at the top of the opposite page is from " Air Engine," an E.M.B. production by Elton.
En haut de lapage opposee, une photo dy " Aeroplane," production E.M.B. par Elton.

The plwto at the bottom of the opposite page is from " Jamaica Produce."
Au bas de la page opposee, image de " Produit de la Jamalque."

TWO DOCUMENTARIES

When the Government's decision to abolish the Empire Marketing Board
was announced, fears were expressed that this would involve the closing down
of the Board's Film Unit. It is now announced that the Unit will continue its
work under another Government department. The Unit has so successfully
mastered the difficult art of the documentary film that its disbandment would
have been a calamity. Much of the Unit's work — most of it in fact — does not
reach the general film-going public. A big net-work of non-theatrical dis-
tribution in schools and educational institutes has been built up but only
occasionally are their productions to be seen on the ordinary cinema screens.
This, from many aspects, is unfortunate. The documentary is one of the most
vital of film forms and many are the abuses committed in its name. A wider
theatrical distribution of the E.M.B. films would both raise the status of the
documentary and make the public aware of the fact that there is as much
technical skill and appreciation of the functions and possibilities of Cinema in the
small " joint " in Oxford Street as in the whole of Shepherds Bush and Elstree.

Two recent E.M.B. productions deserve mention.

Jamaica Produce, by Basil Wright and John Grierson must rank as one of
the most satisfying documentaries produced by the unit. It might almost be
described as the most perfect of all documentary forms, telling its story in terms
of visual movement, without recourse to a single title or a word of commentary.
The film tells us about bananas. We see the natives of Jamaica cutting the
bananas in the fields and transporting them to the coast for shipment. A
endless chain of cheap human labour hurries to and from the boat, jostling,
shoving, pushing and sweating, great stacks of bananas on their shoulders,
heaving the produce on to the boat. RhythmicaUy and insistently the camera
records the scene as bananas are thrown from shore coolie to boat coolie and
stacked in the hold.

Then — a dramatic contrast and a biting comment. The boat arrives in
the Tondon docks and all that is required to unload this great cargo is the
moving belt, with one insignificant man standing by. One sharp cut focusses
our minds on the whole meaning of rationalisation and the unemployment it
brings in its train. From boat to warehouse the belt conveys its cargo and we
visualise the throngs of unemployed dockers waiting at the gates for the jobs
that never come.

" Banana Symphony," as we prefer to call it, runs only ten minutes, but it is
ten minutes of smooth, effortless camera movement, and incidentally it lands a
wallop at one of the most fantastic contradictions of our social system.

Air Engine, by Elton, and photographed by Noble is certainly one of the
most ambitious and successful industrial documentaries so far made in this
country. Within the space of six reels Elton covers the whole construction of
aeroplane engines. His film shews the preparation of the raw materials, the

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From " Contact " by Paul Rot ha. One of the few worthwhile documentaries.
De " Contact " de Paul Rotha. Un documentaire parmi les meilleurs.

making of the parts and testing, the assembling of parts and testing, and lastly,
the final tests in the air. Out of all this he has contrived a beautifully smooth
continuity, the separate parts flowing into each other with the precision of the
engines themselves. This documentary really makes machines interesting.
To my entirely non-mechanical mind the entire process of engine construction,
as presented by Elton, made a fascinating spectacle which completely avoided
boredom or over-repetition at any stage.

Elton has in this film conformed to the E.M.B. tradition of dramatising the
men who make the machines equally with the machines themselves. He will
devote as much footage to the face of a mechanic as to some intricate piece of
machinery. His success in this is complete. The intense concentration of the
workers in that Slough factory as they fashion the deiicate parts for the engines
is photographed and subsequently cut into a unity of man and machine. This
recognition of the human element, of the absolute indispensability of the worker,
is a gratifying feature of most E.M.B. productions.

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From Paul Rotha's " Contact."
D u film de Paul Rot ha " Contact."

Ait Engine is superbly photographed throughout. The director's sense of
composition and imagery in the hnal sequence is one of several noteworthy
features in a noteworthy film. It is to be hoped that the film will not be allowed
to rot in some obscure vault or be preserved exclusively for the technical
experts of the Air Ministry. Both Air Engine and Jamaica Produce merit a
much wider distribution than I fear they will get.

R. Bond.

MANIFESTO ON THE
DOCUMENTARY FILM

Years ago the documentary film had value because it presented us with
facts : from the documents of four or five years ago it was possible to learn.

We believed, then, that the document film had a vigorous and rigorous
future : the clearer presentation of valuable information seemed to define
the development of the filmic documentary.

Alas ! a camorra of folk on the fringe of movidom discovered, when
talkies came in, that they could no longer afford to finance their own movies :
but how desperately they wanted to go on telling their friends that they were
in the movies, how pathetically they wanted to horde up a few more lines of
print from the trade papers. So, they turned to the film document, realising
that this less expensive genre of movie, which can be shot silent and post-
synched, offered them their last chance to remain " directors."

All the same, these hangers-on did not intend, and were not capable of
adhering to the logical and excellent formula of the document. Their shoddy
minds were too muddled and doped with meretricious theatricalities to work
with the purity of the real film document. They brought to the document
outmoded montage belonging to a certain type of emotional drama, and their
yards of theatre tinsel, in the form of joking commentaries, together with the
rest of their aged properties. The result is that we now have documents about
the making of a gramophone which are filled with trick angles and ultra rapid
sections of montage, and which teach us nothing at all about the actual process
of gramophone manufacture. We have travel documents which string to-
gether all the arty 'nookies.' the against-the-sky shots of prognathous natives
and tree-top silhouettes, while not the slightest attempt is made to catalogue
scientifically the customs, flora, mineralogical structure, etcetera, of the country.

Probably, someone will try to twist our manifesto into a statement that a
film without artistes cannot be dramatic : but we hold that a film without
actors can be intensely dramatic, and also that the document has nothing to do
with drama. We want back film documents with real cultural significance.
We are infuriated with pseudo-documents which exploit the prestige of the
worthwhile documentaries of yesterday : their obscene dramatic over-layer
abolishes their worth for the scholar, the lack of imagination of their directors
guarantees their failure as drama.

It would be easy to make a dramatic film without artistes — easy for a
Francis Bruguiere. In his stills, Bruguiere has shown how he can send the
horses from an Italian painting thudding across the head of a Grecian statue, or
how the spire of an English Cathedral can come to life and penetrate the shadow
of a Florentine doorway. Inanimate objects or landscapes can be given, by
the camera of a Bruguiere, fibres, nerves, arteries, personalities, can be made to
take part in a truly magic drama. Such a film would have no need to pose as a
document — it would have its own possession.

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To repeat : we are incensed because films are shown to the public, who are
always about five years behind and have just dimly associated ' document '
with ' culture,' under false prestige and false pretences : were these films to be
presented to the public as drama, the exhibitors would be lynched.

To repeat : we want documents which wiU show, with the clarity and logic
of a scholar's thesis, the subjects they are supposed to tackle : we want no more
filtered skies, ' Russian ' montage and other vulgarities in our ' educational '
productions.

O.B.

THE PRIMEVAL AGE OF CINEMA

There is always a special pleasure in seeing films produced in the early
years of cinema. For, though the first films were made not even forty years
ago you think that we are separated from them by ages. Which might be due
to the general law — if we undertake to compare the evolution of cinema to
human life — that any development in its first stages goes more briskly than in
later ones. Or, considering our average film of to-day, have we not yet entered
the state of being grown up and settled, and will the spectators of 1970 feel
the same strangeness towards our present films ?

Provided they will be able to see them. For there seems to be no central
place throughout the whole world where films are collected and kept beyond
their period of actual use. Archives, a film-library so to speak. Where films
are kept from the point of view of history and history of civilization. It does
not seem necessary to discuss the difficulties of building up such an institution,
for they are evident. But I am sure that they could be overcome and I am
convinced that it would be greatly worth while.

This conviction I acquired seeing a collection of early films which
WALTER JERVEN has shown to us in Vienna under the title " Die Urzeit
des Knios " (The primeval age of cinema). Mr. Jerven has collected his reels
with love and interest, and he is proud of his " curios " most of which are
unique, all the other copies having been burnt or lost.

The collection is arranged chronologically, starting from the very first
beginning : Laterna-magica-films, designed — not yet photographed — showing
a primitive joy in producing movement, such as the whirling of snowflakes or
turning wheels of a train. Later on photographed scenes, simple records :
traffic in the streets, the fire brigade, etc. There is something peculiar about
these earliest shots, basing upon a wrong psychological theory : our eyes,
people thought at that time, are not able to grasp new impressions when the
picture is in movement ; consequently a shot has to be shown as " still " for a
few seconds, then the film suddenly starts moving, and at the end there is the
same in reversed order. I should advise every film-operator to try to show a

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Lars Hansen, with Greta Garbo and Mona Martenson in " Gosta Berling."

few shots in the above way — it gives an indescribably comic effect. I wonder
how the spectators in those days managed to escape that effect, and to adopt
their minds accordingly ?

But apart from these technical details, there are the early play-films which
absorbed our interest from the point of view of psychology. The word
" Kitsch " does not give a sufficient characteristic though it might be applied
for any of them. The false moralistic attitude, the bad taste which prevailed
in the beginning of our century cannot be illustrated more impressively than
by these films. And of course there is the inability of using the new instrument,
consequently the transplantation of the methods of the theatre on the one hand,

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exaggeration of the new filmic possibilities on the other. Time has extin-
guished the alluring effect of fashionable vamps, dresses and decorations, and
what remains — if anything remains — is real art, real value. And the fact
that it reamins is the most encouraging result of such shows. In spite of all
the ridiculousness of the " classical dramatic " film King Lear (1904) we are
somehow touched by the play of the great Italian actor Novelli ; and in a
short scene Alexander Girardi, a very popular Viennese humorist actor proves
that he is well capable of impressing on those who had not yet been born when
the film was made .

Not to forget some interesting historical documents, records of prominent
artists, political personalities, etc.

The performance was received with unexpectedly great interest, which
reveals, as I believe, the demand for creating film-archives.

Trude Weiss.

" Three Lives and a Rope," by Henri Storck. Cameraman, Georges Tairraz.
' Trois vies et line corde " par Henri Storck. Cameraman : Georges Tairraz.

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From " Three Lives and a Rope," which is a synthesis of alpine adventure. The
film includes a dramatic and a humourous story told by mountain guides on the eve

of ascent.

De " Trois vies et une corde " synthese de Vaventure alpestre. Le film comporte
un recit dramatique et un autre, humoristique, narres par les guides an cours d'une

ascension.

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" Que Viva Mexico." An exclusive photo by courtesy of
Herman Weinberg.

" Que Viva Mexico." Une photographie exclusive par per-
mission de M-. Herman IVeinberg.

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An enlargement from the negative of Eisenstein's " Que Viva Mexico.
Aggrandissement du negatif de " Que Viva Mexico."

THE PABST ARRIVAL

By Frank Daugherty.

As I write this, I have talked with Pabst but twice : the first time in his
hotel room on the day of his arrival when, with Henry Balnke, I had missed
him at the train ; the second time at the studio the following day.

If so brief an introduction to his film ideas may be used for an opinion, I
am led to think that Pabst and Hollywood will war, but that when the war is
done, Pabst will have been found to have won some ground for his film ideas in
America.

" I was very impressed with Footlight Parade in New York," he said, " but
surely no one will want me to make a picture like that !

He is right. No one will. His first picture is to be a Ruth Chatterton
vehicle, Journal of a Crime, by Jacques Duval, and at first blush seems an
impossible task for him. But one must not be too quick to judge. Pabst
saw, even in the George-M-Cohan — Gold Diggers — ending the beginnings of a
social consciousness. It is easy enough to sigh and reply that we have seen
those beginnings times without number, but it certainly would be a thankless
thing to suggest to Pabst that he should weigh himself down with our weariness.
Let Pabst see what he will, and make it, too, we say.

He finds Paul Muni's pictures " full " of the social meanings he is seeking.
He thinks Vidor's Hallelujah was almost complete expression. Chaplin he
dismisses as " artist."

This was so surprising because, where Pabst has been admired here at all,
it has been as transition to this " art," and not as superstructure upon it.
But this may be because all European film work first reaches us as " art."
It is difficult to cut it up into its proper names. Eisenstein's great vogue was
first as " art," and died, or was laughed at, when it became something else in
the hands of his young revolutionary admirers in the bickerings over Con Viva
Mexico. Dovzhenko, hardly understood at all, still is a great favorite, but as
" artist." Pudovkin's communist leanings were of course apparent to even
his simplest audience here in Storm Over Asia — but were forgiven for his " art."
More latterly, perhaps, for his film writing. His famous magnesium flame
illustration is quoted by directors and writers who do not know his name. His
recent article in Close Up on the difference between the stage and screen
actor, absolutely sound, has brought him a tardy ripple of attention.

If all this seems very elementary to the European film worker, it should
be remembered that the film in America today is truly in its " dark age" sur-
render to the stage. Even where film consciousness exists, it builds fearfully,
and often as abortion. Sternberg, Vidor, Howard, Borzage, Dieterle — all
conscious of the film as an art — play frightful havoc with its evolution. Even
such a wily fox, such a real film general as Lubitsch, must play at hare and
hounds within the economic circle.

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Chaplin and Disney, nearly everyone agrees, alone are in the great tra-
dition. The former now works upon emphasis rather than upon new statement.
He has said. But he must be sure that what he has said is understood. So he
repeats himself. This, however, is the necessary limitation of any " art "
as it is of dogma and revolution, and will surely be one of Clair's faults. It is
perhaps too early to make statements about Disney. This phenomenal young
film worker seems able to do what he pleases, and do it well. Certainly the
poetic quality of his work is matched only by Chaplin.

To this melange comes Pabst. He comes upon a film epoch in which the
director has almost died. New writers' buildings on every studio lot in Holly-
wood— some of them pretentiously built in the likeness of country chateaux,
with dovecotes in the gables and gilt axioms on the walls — tell this story of
capitulation to the spoken word, which the innocents of Hollywood believe only
writers can supply.

For actors, Pabst will have those who have largely found their success
first upon the stage. Therefore, he will doubtless be given a dialogue director.
Mass photography has come to seem so inconsequential in conferences here
when there are witty lines to be spoken and laughed at. It will be interesting
to hear how Pabst asks for that same mass photography — as certainly he will.
Dieterle, you may or may not know, asked. Lubitsch asked, and to a certain
extent received permission to use it. But will anyone compare the late
Tubitsch pictures to the earlier — even to such a little thing as Montmartre —
to say nothing of the spectacles ?

Pabst's hope lies in his great admiration for the American newsreel. As a
tacking ship, he may make a course from it to his objective. He calls this the
picturization of " life " as opposed to the " art " of Disney and Chaplin.
Anyone who has ever handled those two terms will know the difficulty involved
in trying to separate them, but roughly they express what Pabst is aiming at.

I say his hope lies in the direction of the newsreel because it happens also
to be the darling of the American producers and the American public, and not
because I am fooled into believing that the newsreel has added anything to the
development of films for the past ten years.

If Pabst can begin with mass as spectacle, even if almost excluding it as
material for social theory, he will find his way easier than if he attempts to put
social theory first and spectacle next. Griffith achieved great success along
this line, and at the end of his productive era had attained almost to a genuine
" art " — if the term may be excused. But Griffiths had an easier way than
Pabst will have because he worked within sentimental national limitations
while the German plans, and wisely, to strike at the international view.

Pabst's War of Tomorrow , on which he worked so long in France, should
not be inappropriate material for an American picture, granting, of course, that
it is made before the NRA or its subsequents fire national feeling to too high a
pitch. But whether he intends making this in America is entirely speculative.

It is interesting, the way Pabst reasons along film avenues of the Russian
revolution. For the first time in the history of the world, he says, a mass

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action was given into the hands of the artists — he wouldn't call them that, but
directors — for recording. Logically then, if for recording after action, why not
for shaping before action. If you say that is what Eisenstein and Pudovkin
and Dovzhenko have worked for, you do not understand the essential difference
which separates these workers from Pabst. Their film work has often been a
party weapon. Pabst would forge a weapon which would create parties.
His pacificism is almost religious. He cites Babel.

" Where there was only one language, there were no wars. The film is the
first universal language of comprehensible ideas."

If one could group film development under two major heads, one could
easily fall into the temptation to group the French pictures under Chaplinesque
" art " and most of the Russian efforts as a development of the school of D. W.
Griffith. Squarely between these two schools then, would lie the German film,
perhaps with Swedish influence written all over it.

It is this which makes Pabst's presence in America so much more hopeful
than was Eisenstein's. We have always liked the German film worker, and
there has seldom, if ever, been any suspicion of him. I think this will follow
in the case of Pabst. He has not come upon us and stated what he will do and
what he will not do. He will do what he can with what he is given, and he will
go on from there. To a very great idealism, Pabst adds the necessary modicum
of patient practicality.

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An enlargement from the negative of Eisevstein's " Que Viva Mexico."
Un negatif agrandi de " Que Viva Mexico " d'Eisenstein.

It would be pleasant if one could think of Pabst as willing to use his
*' realife " camera just for the moment without thought of anything but
photography. Most of Hollywood has forgotten that a camera photographs,
that it sees, or perceives ; they think of it merely as a recording film-gramo-
phone. The result has been that we are overfed with New York stage gabble
and southern California backgrounds.

Pabst — and of course not alone Pabst — must again discover for us the
magic that lies in the camera box. Geometry and the spectrum, to say nothing
of geography and the human corpus, still are picturable. And, if the slander
upon Hollywood cameraman is not too unbearable, in natural light and shade.
We are having a filter epidemic over here.

We must look to Pabst and whoever else comes for this love of the camera.
It is our dead lost love. Cutting — yes. It is a great deal. But it is not every-
thing.

Well, at least Pabst is here, and we shall see.

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Wild Cattle," a neic Portuguese film by Lopes Ribeiro and Max Noresk. Photo

by Luis Nunes.

Be'tail suuvage," un nouveau film portugais de Lopez Ribeiro et Max Xoresk.
Photo de Luis Nunes.

PORTUGAL

For many years the Portuguese cinema has existed miserably. When it
was first attempted to make films in Portugal, a small studio was built at
Oporto but many pictures were produced in quick succession and the artistic
and commercial errors committed spoiled everything in a short time. Work
was soon stopped and the studio was abandoned.

For a time the Portuguese cinema scarcely existed. Now and again a
film appeared, not a real work of art but onlv a commercial picture. Then
all relapsed into silence.

Two years ago a new attempt was made to create a Portuguese cinema,
but this isolated trial failed also, although it gave us two or three pictures of
real interest and value. It was the work of Leitao de Barros producing Nazare,
Maria do Mar and A Severn.

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But the " talkies " upset this enterprise. About a year ago, a great
campaign was organised in favor of the national cinema, whose existence
could be assured in Portugal only if we had a modern studio with all the
necessary equipment. The campaign gained ground. A well organised producing
society was started : The " Companhia Portuguesa de Filmes Sonoros Tobis
Klang Film " (" Tobis Portuguesa " for short), and in less than a year built
a small studio in Tisbon equipped with the most modern and practical technical
Tobis Klang Film equipment.

Even before they had finished building, the Company began to work.
And the first picture of this society, A Concao de Lisboa (the Song of Tisbon),
directed by Cotinelli Telmo, is ready to be shown to the public. A Cancao de
Lisboa wiU be a so-called popular comedy where the author pretends to har-
monise commercial necessities with art.

With the advent of this companv another producer appeared : the
" Bloco H. da Costa."

Wild Cattle," a new Portuguese film by Lopes Ribeiro and Max Noresk. Photo by Luis Nunes.
' Betail sauvage," un nouveau film portugais de Lopez Ribeiro et Max Noresk. Photo de Luis Nunes .

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Another scene from " Wild Cattle," directed by Lopes Ribeiro for Bloco H. da Costa.
Une autre scene de " Betail sauvage," realise par Lopez Ribeiro pour Bloco H. da Costa.

Another scene from " Wild Cattle" directed by Lopes Ribeiro for Bloco H. da Costa.
Une autre scene de " Betail sauvage," realise par Lopez Ribeiro pour Bloco H. da Costa.

This new producer is working hard and also intends to build another
small studio in Lisbon or in Oporto. They are now filming the out-door scenes
of their first " talkie," Gado Bravo, under the direction of Lopes Ribeiro,
assisted by Max Norsek. Several foreign artists and technicians (Heinrich
Gartner, Herbert Lippschitz, Mischa Spolianski, Siegfried Arno, etc.) are
engaged by this Company and will help Portuguese artists and technicians
with their experience.

The film Gado Bravo (Wild Cattle) is a very simple story having as a back-
ground many of the most picturesque places of the South and showing several
typical customs and costumes of the country-life in Portugal.

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The Portuguese Government recognizing the advantages of the creation
of a national industry of cinema, made a decree : Firstly — freeing for five
years the Compania Portuguese de Filmes Sonores from all taxes and contribu-
tions ; Secondly — lowering the taxes on the cinemas when they show a film
of Portuguese origin ; Thirdly — that foreign films must be shown in proportion
to the national production.

But this is not all ! The country and the fine climate of Portugal is attract-
ing the foreigners. Some time ago a Belgian Caravan arrived in Portugal,
commanded by Stephane Borg ; they wanted to produce a picture about our
country, and they are now at work.

At the same time it is said (but I cannot yet confirm it) that some producers
technicians and artists, obliged to leave Germany on account of the present
situation there intend to set up in Portugal as cinematograph centres of inter-
national production.

As you see, Portugal is getting on in the film world, but ... as said Rene
Clair : art et argent, intelligence creatrice et regies financieres sont ici aux prises.

Alves Costa.

THE HISTORICAL INCEPTION OF STAGE

AND FILM

By Pennethorne Hughes.

That dead donkey, the absolute independence of true cinema and theatre,
has been flogged now into a nasty enough pulp to avoid any fear of further
theoretical identification of the mediums. But it may be profitable to suggest
(before the ultimate professors of cinematography do so), various analogies
of opportunity which do appear in the historical development of the two means
of expression. For it is now possible, with some hope of intelligent sympathy,
to show the sixteenth century as a period of cultural decadence and material
expansion remotely comparable to our own, and so to suggest that in their
audiences and immediate development the theatre and cinema had much in
common, quite independently of course of that tried and tired subject, their
technical relationship. A pedagogic catalogue of parallels would be insufferable,
but, without pressing the analogy too far, or even stressing its implications,
the outstanding likenesses may be mentioned. Here are a few of them.

First, personnel. The secular theatre, at first, was regarded with the
horror which was inherent in Christian policy (and for that matter pagan
policy too, when properly enforced.) Tertullian thundered against actors,
bishops refused to baptise them, and so on, until by the thirteenth century the
Roman theatre had been almost entirely abandoned, and the amusements
of the nobles became those of combat and marbles, with, after the Crusades,
gaming, whilst the people had the consolation of fairs, dances, bear-baiting,
bull-fighting, and those exhibitions of mystical or quasi-dramatic pageantry
which only ultimately developed into the Elizabethan theatre. This is history.

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And so the actor was, and this is text-book, the outcast and vagabond, except
as the professional adjunct to the aristocratic masque. But with the rise of
the drama came the attachment of the intellectuals from the universities.
The University Wits, proper, were not the only throw-outs of the educational
system who drifted into the business of the theatre. It was the bolt-hole for
very many of the progressive and enterprising, exactly as the cinema became
during the nineteen twenties. Cinema was acclaimed as a medium in the
universities, before it was accepted in the salons, and so too, in its generation,
was the drama. (A further political parallel, Russia and the cinema, Marlowe
and the Walsinghams, it would be professorial to develop). Perhaps it is
obvious that a new medium would then, as always, attract the rebels and sign-
posts. But the way they behaved was, similar also. For as the film is a com-
posite production, representative of a group and a machine, rather than of a
single director, so was, except in extraordinary instances, the Elizabethan play.
The co-operation of the Elizabethan dramatists is a platitude. Less realised
is the existance of actual scenario writers who sold skeleton plots for others
to work up — like Anthony Munday, whom Meres called " our best plotter."
These men developed an organised system, and teams of authors such as Dekker,
Day, and Houghton (cp., somehow, Francis, Day, and Hunter) are the equiva-
lents as entertainers to the production units of a modern studio. The
Elizabethans, too, would write for stars : Alleyn or Burbage, as Jannings
or Lloyd.

There is then a parallel of personnel, and also, to a considerable extent,
of objective. Entertainment was the end, and, except in the case of identifiable
genius, poetry and dramatic construction were, for the author, by-products.
The exclusively intellectual productions remained script, usually scholarly
aping of Seneca and the late Romans, and the ordinary writer stuck to pagean-
try and caricature, the magnificent loud pedal of Marlowe, or the slapstick
of the Shakesperean histories. If the spectacle was created by stimulating
the imagination of the audience by classical allusions they could aU understand,
rather than by lulling that imagination by treatment they all knew by heart,
that was the higher standard of the audience rather than the cultural affecta-
tion of the dramatists. It is unnecessary to labour how the " effective "
film, too, has always been subservient to the box-office, except in the case
of a very few outstanding efforts, and the peculiar instance of the U.S.S.R.
Unlike the drama, however, which was originally dependent on the institution
of patronage, largely as the result of the aristocratic masques, the cinema
retained no aristocratic connections. The magic lantern, and the first ani-
mated cartoons, were rich men's toys, but pictures sprung essentially from
the nickelodeon and the interested diversion of the dregs, rather than from
the quainterie which had bored or fascinated upper-class children and the
patrons of Mission Halls. But patronage disappeared very early even from the
drama, which was for long scorned by the literary-aristocracy (e.g. Sir Philip
Sidney) and the play was, as the cinema is, essentially the entertainment of
the proletariat.

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343

From the Portuguese film "A Song of Lisbon," directed by Cotinelli Telmo.
Du film portugais "Une chanson de Lisbonne" realise par Cotinelli Telmo.

This leads to the close resemblance between the objections urged to early
plays and early cinemas : remarkably close, even if rather obvious. The
early play was opposed for (1) spreading disease — which indeed, with religious
and other gatherings, it probably did. Compare the Report of the Committee
on Films, 1917.

(2) Promotion of loose morals — though how far it was less moral than the
morality plays is doubtful. Compare the report mentioned above. Argument
still running.

' Wild Cattle," a nezv Portuguese film by Lopes Ribeiro and Max Noresk. Photo by Luis Nunes.
' Be tail sauvage," un nouveau film portugais de Lopez Ribeiro et Max Noresk. Photo de Luis Nunes.

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(3) Waste of time. Still an excellent argument against the commercial
cinema. But bread and circuses and the Problem of Leisure.

(4) The Technical objection that the " new " play did not observe the
unities.- On this point Sir Philip Sidney was particularly scathing, even though
it must be remembered that the action was far more free and, in a sense,
verisimilitudinous, than when conventionally bounded in the later picture-
frame setting. This argument is comparable to the earliest protests that
no one could possibly take an interest in the actions of figures who were merely
shadows — protests which the Trade ridiculously counters by compound
" realism."

The actual similarities of early technical machinery between stage and
film are too important to indicate. Only, as a half-facetious comment, it
may be remarked that many of the silent Interludes were elaborated into
dramas proper, just as silent films are drearily regurgitated into all-too talking
pictures. Also note (important) the scenario-like lay-out of pre-Restoration
plays, when not " edited " into conventional breaks by the 18th century.

This sort of parallel could be continued for ever. Both ages held, for
instance, the pathetic illusion that you cannot have too much of a financially
good thing, which means the ridiculous belching at the discreditably grateful
public of innumerable rehashings of a successful theme — jungle, prison, or
war, which ever form of dangerous emetic is temporarily popular. The
Elizabethan successes were largely those of vindicatory jingoism : historical
dramas, military knock-about, or Jew-baiting — the Jew of Malta or Shake-
speare's copy, Shylock. They are models which current reaction would seem
to make safe bets today, when, though social morality has hardened, political
morality remains in much the same state of barbarity as it was for the emotional
realists of sixteenth century expansionism.

For this is an indication of what can be and eventually will be done,
rather than a pedagogic attempt to do it. Least of all is it an attempt, on a
sort of Ervine level, to draw shoddy conclusions (from dramatic history),
as to future development of the cinema. But perhaps a paper devoted to
intelligent discussion of cinema should at some time show its ability to relate
the history, though it may sensibly ignore discussion of the practise, of the
stage. At all events to show a few of the more obvious directions in which the
relation of that history may be directed. More profitably, too, it may be a
stimulus of some sort to show that a medium of accepted attainment long
underwent the same processes as the newer one of promise. In spite of cen-
turies of commercial theatre, projecting cavalcades of imbecility, there are a
few great plays. In spite of everything then — film publics, film finances,
film policy, film censorships and Film Weekly — there may still be a few good
films.

So now let us get on and make something.

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347

The Kiyomizu Temple photographed for "Japan in Four Seasons," but not included
in the final print of the film.

Photo du Temple Kiyomizu qui n'a pas ete retenue dans la version achevee du film:
" Le jfapon en quatre saisons."

SYMPHONIC CINEMA

By Clifford Howard.

" The talkies " as an appellation is at once expressive and admissive.
Out of the multifold possibilities latent in the application of acoustics to the
cinema the only achievement as yet worthy of acceptance is talk. All other
forms of sonification have so far amounted to little more than primitive " sound
effects " and the mere transference to the screen of the quondam kino orchestra
with its more or less questionable relevancy as an adjunct to the show. In
the main such limitation of the use of photophony has been due, not to technical
or physical lack, but simply to the absorbing interest of producers and public
alike in the salient feature of this latest development, the novelty of cinematic
speech.

The existing situation is analogous to that of the early stage of motion
pictures themselves, when the potentialities offered by the art of photography
and of drama were uninterestedly ignored in the wonderment inspired bv the

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prodigy of animated screen images. Not until this miracle had lost its blush
was attention turned to the refining of its technique and to expanding the field
of its capabilities, with the resultant divorcing of it from its initial conceptual
association with the magic lantern.

That a like evolutionary change is destined to follow the present focussing
of satisfaction on mere vocality, is a foregone conclusion. Evidences of it are
already at hand. The musical scoring of pictures is no longer entrusted ex-
clusively to hacks and tin-pan-alley song writers. The value of intelligent and
sympathetic scoring is becoming slowly appreciated. Circus-band accompani-
ments are giving place to music, and to music designed truly to complement the
varying moods of a film and to form an actual, component, interwoven part of
it as a facilitative factor in its ideophonic interpretation.

Pioneer examples of this coming change are afforded by Cavalcade and
Farewell to Arms. The former is almost wholly devoid of characteristic Holly-
wood jazz. What little there is of it was introduced advisedly as serviceable
to a purpose, and was written by the versatile Noel Coward himself. The
rest of the musical setting was composed and adapted from the classics by Touis
di Francesco, and the result is an achievement of melodic sentiment which is
not only in keeping with the spirit of the picture, but which also blends with it
as a constituent emotional element of the drama.

In addition to the significance of Hollywood's having countenanced this
artistic innovation, an illuminating glimpse of the future may be gleaned from
Di Francesco's explication of his work on the picture. " In Cavalcade," he says,
" I began with a miniature overture played during the running of the annuncia-
tive portion of the film. I have a call for the trumpets, the Fate motif going
through the score, rising in pitch as the drama mounts in intensity, and either
sent out alone or embellished with rich orchestration, as the mood of the play
suggests. I used a chorus of eighty voices in several of the sequences because
only by giving the audience an impression of a many-voiced crowd could I
convey the bigness and dignity of the story's historical events. Combining the
chorus with the symphonic background emphasized the chaos of the war
scenes.

" Recording the full symphony orchestra and the chorus without losing the
resonance and the overtones presented an interesting and no little difficult
problem. After numerous experiments I finally had a stage constructed to
form a sounding board, without which even a piano is dead. That was better,
but the results were still short of what I desired. Then I had the stage covered
with two coats of varnish and built up the orchestra in perspective, as on an
actual orchestra stage, and this, at last, gave me the resonance and beauty I
wanted."

And thus he goes on to define his methods and to recite the experiments
and devices necessary to accomplish his purpose. And they are here men-
tioned as an indication of the enlarged intelligence and vision now being applied
to the musical phase of the cinema. It marks the beginning of a new valuation
of music and its employment as a symphonic integrant of pictorial dramaturgy.

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349

The Kinkaku Temple in Kyoto, photographed for the production of " Japan in Four Seasons," but not

included in the final print of the film.

Le temple Kinkaku a. Kyoto photographie pour la production: " he Japon en quatre saisnns," mais

ecartee lors du tirage definitif du film.

Once the value and possibilities of this advancement are fully appreciated
the screen will enter a period of development corresponding in evolutional
range to that which followed upon the rudimentary cineograph with the intro-
duction ot photodrama. Directly ahead lies the rich field of opera. Even as
the cinema has brought the theatre to the screen, with enhanced versatility,
beauty, and verisimilitude, so likewise may it translate the opera, not only with
an increase of picturesqueness, but also with amplifying radiophonic ingenuities
and facilities heretofore undreamed of. For coincidentally with the improve-
ment in the scoring of pictures, radio scientific research has been busy in the
field of orchestral reproduction, and the results already attained point to a new
era in the technique of musical rendition and interpretation.

Leopold Stokowski, director of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, is in
large measure responsible for these results. They represent two years of work
in collaboration with the engineers of the Bell Telephone Company and of the
Radio Corporation of America, and recently in Philadelphia a first public
demonstration of them was given for the National Academy of Sciences.

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Wagnerian music, via microphone, was played with whispering pianissimos
and thunderous crescendos hitherto unheard by human ears. By the turn of a
control knob, Stokowski could subdue to a mere trickle of sound the music
emanating from his orchestra isolated in another part of the theatre, or he could
build it up to the volume of two thousand performers at peak output. Brtinne-
hilde, sung by a concert artiste in selections from Die Walkure, became an
electrical super- vocalist, soaring above the tumultuous accompaniment and
manifesting in very truth her superhuman character as a warrior daughter of
the gods. In short, the performance throughout was a revelation of musical
coloring and expression such as would have been beyond the most daring
conception of Wagner himself.

This merging of music and radio-telephonic science introduces jointly three
novel factors in the electrical reproduction of vocal and orchestral music, as well
as all other forms of sound — auditory perspective, tone and overtone control,
and volume control. The first is obtained by the use of three loud-speakers
placed at the right, centre and left of the stage, each connected with a similarly
placed microphone on the remote stage of the performers. The second, by the
use of all frequencies from 35 to 16,000 cycles per second, a number roughly
nine times that utilized in the most perfect radio transmission and embracing a
wide range of nine octaves, from three below middle C to nearly six above ;
while the volume (the third of the factors) can be varied from an output
equivalent to a millionth of a watt up to a sustained hundred watts and even to
a kilowatt at momentary peaks, without distortion. Thus, in the demonstra-
tion alluded to, the sound of the rustle of leaves, barely audible to the unaided
ear, was raised to beyond that of the roar of an airplane engine.

The application to the cinema of these accomplishments is but a matter of
time, and it requires no labor of the imagination to apprehend its significance
as an added, puissant means of lifting the phonofilm out of its present crudities
and inadequacies and converting it into an instrument of expression worthy of
the highest artistic genius.

An Independent Film-Makers Association has been formed to bring
together and assist those who are interested in the production of Documentary,
Experimental and Educational films.

It is hoped that the Association may put members in touch with one
another for the purpose of making a joint film. It will also give expert advice,
compile a catalogue of films made by members, endeavour to find a market
for such pictures and hold a summer school and from time to time, demonstra-
tions of apparatus and exhibitions of films.

Application for membership should be made to J. C. H. Dunlop, Hon.
Treasurer, 4a, St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh,2. The subscription is 10/6.

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351

The Kiyomizu Temple photographed for " Japan in Four Seasons," but not included
in the final print of the film.

Photo du Temple Kiyomizu qui 11 a pas ete retenue dans la version achevee du film:
" Le Japon en quatre saisons."

THE EMPEROR JONES

It was inevitable that they should make it. The elements to compose
a flashing cinema drama as represented in the combination of O'Neill,
1 he Emperor Jones, Paul Robeson, Du Bose Heyward (author of Porgy)
and the burning desire of crusaders that marked those enterprising young
producers John Krimsky and Gifford Cochrane, were ultimately integrated
into their respective component parts. With the financial success of
Maedchen in Uniform (which Krimsky and Cochrane presented with such
astonishing success in America)* as a spur, they set out to foster art in the
cimena with a capital " A."

Since Borderline was never shown in America (its theme of miscegnation
being tabu here), The Emperor Jones served to introduce Paul Robeson
as a screen player. It goes without saying that he was an inevitable choice
for the blustering, arrogant Pullman porter, one Brutus Jones by name,
who became through his own sheer nerve, king of a little black isle off the
coast of Africa (or was it the West Indies).

* Since materially curtailed by the boycott on German films.

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To Paul Robeson the part was heaven-sent. No one anywhere could
have done more with it. This magnificent actor strode through the picture
like a colussus — his rich baritone voice booming in cadences almost musical —
and now and then raised in plaintive, sweet song.

Sometimes in the film play, Du Bose Heyward provided him with a line
or two which augments O'Neill's delineation of Brutus Jones.

" King Brutus ! " he exclaims, to hear for himself what sound it will make.

" Somehow," he says, " that don't make enough noise ! "

" T-h-e E-m-p-e-r-o-r J-o-n-e-s I" he booms with a grin of extreme
satisfaction.

Indeed, Du Bose Heyward, the scenarist, who did the screen adaptation,
provides Robeson with many more lines. Brutus Jones' rise from PuUman
porter to Emperor is traced in detail — whereas only referred to in the play.
For the purposes of cinema and the exigencies demanded in America of the
narrative film, this was deemed expedient. But the film suffers from some
three reels of " introduction " and doesn't reach the point where O'Neill
begins his play until well over a half hour has elapsed. The " introduction "
is long and tedious and adds nothing to the story. The play is more taut,
tightly woven, nervous and foreboding. It is only in its last few reels that the
film approaches any of these qualities. And then only in an imitative sort of
way — never in its own way.

The only really touching moments are those in which Robeson as the
deposed Emperor flees through the tortured forest at night — a panic stricken,
terrified being, maddened by the drums and the " ha'nts " which bring his
quivering kaleidoscopic past before him. Here Robeson is quite magnificent —
and rises above any qualities the director or scenarist had to give the story.

The Emperor Jones as a film is less unified, less a perfectly conceived
work than Vidor's Hallelujah, for instance. Hallelujah had a real beginning,
middle and end — all related to each other — and following upon each other
in unswerving sequence. Perhaps here we have a justification of Hollywood.
There was little or nothing superfluous in Hallelujah. There is much that is
superfluous in The Emperor Jones. The chase through the swamp in
Hallelujah was every bit as thrilling as Brutus Jones' inextricable journey
through the midnight forest — yet Hallelujah was ten times better cinema
than The Emperor Jones. It had rhythm and swing, cadence shunted into
cadence and the whole remained a unity in the mind of the director from its
inception. The Emperor Jones as a film has the rhythm of the drum beats
but Hallelujah was rhythm personified. It had what Rene Clair calls " inner
rhythm "—it MOVES !

I am afraid the real hero of the film, The Emperor Jones is still
Eugene O'Neill, who provided it with any merit it has and to Paul Robeson who
gives it what few moments of life it has. The director, scenarist and everyone
else concerned meant well, and they deserve much credit for that, if only to
have revealed to us Paul Robeson in so ideal a part — which is as much as
anyone could ask from the cinema of the human being.

Herman G. Weinberg.

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353

A night scene from" Greater Tokyo," a Japanese docu-
mentary film which zvas photographed and edited by
Wladimir Schneider 010 .

Scene nocturne du " Plus grand Tokyo" documentaire
japonais photographie et edite par Wladimir Sc/mei-
derow.

JAPAN AS SEEN IN FILMS

Whenever a Japanese — no matter if he is a film specialist or not — who
has seen in foreign lands films relating to Japan (i.e., Japanese dramatic films
and cultural or documentary films photographed and cut by Japanese or
occidental photographers or directors) comes back home, he complains to us
of these films that have been shown abroad, but never in Japan. He always
concludes his impressions with a word : they are very far from being Japan in
modern times. Not only so, but also they fail to be true, especially in such cases
as where they refer to current matters and topics of Japan.

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The " Kiyomizu " Temple from "Japan in Four Seasons," a production by the
Board of Tourist Industry.

Le Temple de Kiyomizu, du film " he Japon en quatre saisons "production du
Cornell d'industrie touristique.

I will give you some instances. Yoshihiko Tamura, who has been respons-
ible these past few years for the production of Japanese versions of the Para-
mount Pictures, spoke recently over the radio about the news reels he has seen
in a New York theatre. One of them offers some scenes of a Japanese military
review attended by the Emperor. The news reel announcer interprets that
the Emperor stirs up the morale of the troops going to the front in Manchuria.
Yoshihiko Tamura reproached those who dared to make such an irresponsible
interpretation. Another scene offers a country place where men and boys are
enjoying kite-flying — a scene that aroused in this spectator a sense of nostalgia
for his homeland. But he was quite suddenly aroused from his yearning by
the shot that depicted with magnificent and exaggerating detail of close up, a
man who was making water outdoors and in public and before the camera.
Yoshihiko Tamura ended his broadcasting with the pronouncement of necessity
for national control over the films to be exported.

Kisao Uchida who is an assistant editor of the Kinema Jumpo and very
conversant with European, especially French films, enumerates in his corres-
pondence with the magazine some Japanese shorts he has seen in Europe and
America and has been so ashamed that he could hardly sit through the per-
formance ; for instance : one shows the Nikko Shrine visited by many of
ignorant, old men and women who, tucking up the skirts, putting on Geta

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355

(wooden shoes) and placing towels over their shoulders, fold their hands in
prayer. They look towards the camera, as if they were confronted with it for
the first time. Another film introduces Japanese Geisha in Hawaii, dressing
their hair in Japanese style and dancing in bathing suits of occidental fashion.
(Their hair and suits make a very odd, ridiculous contrast). Another shows
pearl-girldivers who, having on short shirts and pieces of cloth around their
waist only, dive down and then come up time and again. A short shows a
man and a woman praying to God under the waterfall. (One of the old,
religious rituals in Japan.) And also scenes of a portable shrine carried about
into the river by many lads ; one of them wearing a towel round his head, is,
using a Japanese fan ; another is exposing buttocks by rolling up his skirts.
A document introduces an Ainu girl as if she were typical of a Japanese girl.
(Erroneous, of course).

It is very clear that those shorts, though they only express Japan in fashion
and usage, never fail to impress on outworn foreigners throughout the world
with the visual precision and intensiveness that here is a country that stands
even to-day beyond the pale of modern culture and civilization.

Such being the case, we are always worried by the present situation in the
exhibition of Japanese films in foreign countries. Recently, however, we had
good news that was an unexpected joy indeed : the appearance of Nippon,
commented on in the Close Up, September, 1932, by Miss W. Bryher, wherein
she says (after referring to the Japanese landscape, Judo, etc.), it (Nippon) is
not to be compared with the rather dull films of modern Japanese life that have
occasionally been seen in London . . . and that readers of Close Up should
do all in their power to see these four pictures, Kiihle Wampe, Harlekin, Nippon
and L'Atlantide, since they certainly must rank among the great films of 1932.

I, as well as other readers in Japan, was very glad to read her commentary
upon Nippon, although it was at that time utterly unknown to us, since we had
never had a film with such a title. However, in the spring of this year, quite
suddenly, the Tokyo Asahi newspaper (one of the two big journalistic publica-
tions which has a considerable circulation among intellectuals on account of its
liberal and pacifistic tendency) contained an article with the provocative title
" Seeing Nippon, a film of national disgrace for Japan," by Fujio Homma,
assistant professor of the Kyoto Imperial University who was studying in
Europe and had sent it far from Vienna. I think I am going to summarize
his article as short as possible, as it is too long to be reprinted in its entirety.
It created so great a sensation that Kiyohiko Ushiwara, a famous Japanese
director and one of the four principal participants in Nippon (Nippon was
edited and montaged by Karl Koch into one piece from three Japanese films ;
one is Samimaru, directed by Eiichi Koishi, others Torch, by Teinosuke Kinu-
gasa and A Great City, by Kiyohiko Ushiwara) was obliged to write an excuse
in the same newspaper.

Fujio Homma writes :

" The scoundrel Samurai, masters of martial arts, commits a terrible man-
slaughter in order in Samaimaru to get back his girl in the temple and in Torch

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to despoil a sword and be revenged upon his sweetheart who has been wife to
another man. The first part Samimaru, is nothing more than a mere sword-
play that has nothing to do with the Japanese culture in the Tenpyo age (an
artistic period in 710-780) in which milieu Samimaru is unfolded. In connec-
tion with Torch, I am sure that spiritual life of such inferiority is an exception,
a very rare instance even in the age of Tokugawa Government (1603-1867).
I do question : has our past been filled in the world with such misconduct and
coldbloodness, instead of justice and morality ?

" As regards A Great City, it offers no great city, in spite of the title, but a
steam engine of old mechanism and an engine driver, as principal roles instead.
A ' bad ' engineer thieves the plan of an electric engine designed by the engine
driver in the principal role and expresses it as his own invention. Many
workmen, comrades with the driver, know which side is wrong and carry out a
direct action ; the ' bad ' but fragile engineer confesses his crime at once.
Nippon is such trash !

These three parts which constitute Nippon are sure to cause foreigners to
arrive at the conclusion that the Japanese through all ages is egoistic, of
impetuous temper, uncapable of understanding reason and virtue and very
fond of man-killing."

Kiyohiko Ushiwara, director of A Great City, wrote in answer to the above
Homma's patriotic protest in the same newspaper. After affirming that a pro-
Japanese attitude underlines the production of Nippon by Karl Koch and other
foreign co-operators, Ushiwara says :

" It is inevitable that the three originals have been shortened by Koch.
As regards, for instance, A Great City, my film, it is completely deprived of the
scenes of peace and affection ; the original has scenes showing affectionate
relations between father and son, a nucleus point of the film, and others of the
beautiful love of a poor girl and a good engine-driver ; instead of these peaceful
depiction, the matter of conflict between the driver and the engineer
was substituted and as a result, the plan became the focus of the film
development."

Another sensation of this year in relation with the problem of " Japan as
seen in films " was Madam Butterfly, in which Silvia Sydney played as Cho-
Cho San and Carey Grant, Pinkerton, a Paramount production directed by
Marion Gerling, who has gained some reputation in Japan by his success in
24 Hours. As far as the workmanship is concerned, Madam Butterfly is above
the common level ; all the players, especially Silvia Sydney, give good perform-
ances, settings and decors are extravagant, beautiful and well-designed ;
furthermore, the famous music by Puccini is fascinating. However, in spite of
these superior attributes, Madam Butterfly was a box office flop in Japan, or at
least in Tokyo, because the psychological developments expressed by Cho-Cho
San were not accepted by the general Japanese audience. Her manner by
falling in love with Pinkerton is very singular and what is worse, their marriage
that is not bound with love, but other incomprehensible feelings, is utterly
ridiculous. A few days pass and Pinkerton returns to America, leaving Cho-
Cho San alone in Japan. After three years he comes to Japan again with a

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357

wife of the same nationality and calls on Cho-Cho San, who has been waiting
by the window with a baby in her hands all the night through. Cho-Cho San
embraces Pinkerton, when she recognizes a woman standing behind the beloved
and does everything else at the same time. Then Cho-Cho San bows before
him and goes inside, without any words intended to blame him for his in-
sincerity and treachery, and at last she commits a suicide — sequence of the
weakest and silliest of the whole picture. The Japanese women of this date
regard Cho-Cho San with not so much sympathy as contempt.

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Here I will relate some dialogues that seem to be silly and absurd towards

us.

(Pinkerton becomes attached to Cho-Cho San).
Barton : {Laughs) . Acquaint this guy with the facts of life, will you ?
Goro : To marry, that very usual arrangement.

Pinkerton : Well, not with me, it isn't.

Barton : No, no, you don't catch on. Marriage doesn't mean the same
thing to those people that it does to us.

Why — {laughs) — well, all you have to do out here is to sign a
marriage contract with the girl's parents and that's that.
Pinkerton : Yeah, what about when we up anchor ?

Barton : Well, you just leave, that's all, and when you do, the girl is

considered divorced.
Pinkerton : Well, that's pretty tough on the girl, isn't it ?
Barton : {Laughs) — No, no, not at all. A marriage broker, like Goro

here, gets her a new husband before the old one is half way down

the front steps.

To summarize what I have described above, Japanese films, both dramatic
and cultural, exported and exhibited abroad, do not propagate Japan as she is
to-day, but cater for the prejudices with which all the foreign nations are
possessed, by exposing her relic of feudal days that seems even to us, Japanese,
to be odd and nonsensical. Not only so, but also foreign-made-films treating
Japan, needless to say, convey a false Japan.

These aspects have brought about a tendency favourable for the movement
of national control over the films to be exported, regardless of whether their
producers are Japanese or not, and also of negative or positive. It is reported
by the recent newspaper that the Japanese Department of Home Affairs has
commenced to investigate the present circumstances of film control in the
principal countries of the world in order to establish in Japan a national policy
of the same effect in co-operation with the other Departments. The bill which
has been published to be discussed by them, contains, among others, the
following items.

1 . Films to be exported shall be controlled by similar methods to such as are
now adopted in Italy ( L.U.C.E. or L'Unione Cinematographica Educativa)
and in Germany (Lampe Institut, and Ministerium fur Volks-aufklarung
und Propaganda).

2. An semi-official cinema company like the above L.U.C.E. in Italy shall be
established to produce not only the dramatic films, but also sociological,
educational and propaganda pictures.

3. Films produced under control shall express the true Japanese spirit.
Thus, having been forced to be interested in " Japan as seen in films," we

have recently had two or three documental films of importance. One is
Greater Tokyo, a Meschrabpom production directed by Wladimir Schneiderow,
who is in Japan known as a director of Pamir. In the autumn of 1932, Schnei-
derow and his comrades arrived in Japan on their way home from an expedition
to the Arctic Ocean. During their stay in Japan, they made a film document on

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A scene of the Bon Festival Dance from "Japan in Four Seasons."
Un passage du Festival de Danse Bon, dans " Le jfapon en quatre saisons."

Tokyo as the centre of Japan under the auspices of the Asahi newspaper.
After shooting, they got back to the Soviet Union with the film as undeveloped.
In the Meschrabpom studio in Moscow the film was synchronized under the
direction of Kosaku Yamada, a well known Japanese conductor and com-
poser, who had been expressly invited from Japan for the purpose. The
document was completed and in July this year, it was brought back to Japan
and shown in Tokyo for two days. This film of four reels has Tokyo from
morning till midnight (this treatment reminds us of Ruttmann's Berlin) inter-
woven by some scenes of the primitive rural manners in the suburbs of Tokyo
and those of the Nikko Shrine. This film is rather banal and not so piercing
as we should have expected it to be from a Russian director whose countrymen

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made and are making the most poignant films in the world, except concerning a
few instances wherein it reveals interesting contrasts of " Old and New," such
as small wooden houses vs. big modern buildings, Jinriki-sha vs. a motorcar,
Geisha -vs. modern girls with bobbed hair and dressed in foreign style, etc.,
which, however, amount to no more than mere contrasts on account of its failure
to pursue the phase of conflict between them. In spite of the dissatisfaction
above described, it may be said that the film Greater Tokyo propagates, though
superficially, Tokyo and so Japan as a cultural heterogeniety. I think that the
film is now, at the time of writing, being shown through the Soviet Union, so
it is likely to be seen in other European countries. I cannot help desiring that
readers of Close Up would do all in their power to see this Russian-made
Japanese film.

Other films dealing with Japan have been published by the Board of
Tourists Industry in the Railway Department with the object of introducing
Japan abroad and beckoning tourists to Japan. In addition to the English
titles, they have English vocal interpretation. Japan in Four Seasons,
Japanese Festivals and Kyoto and Nara are these films, the first-named being
the most interesting, of eight reels, each two reels devoted to one season.
Despite of the superior quality of camera handling, it is a fatal defect, one critic
says in his review contained in the recent Eiga-Hyoron, that they have been
made to reveal Japan as she is conventionally considered by foreigners.

Lastly I will explain Japan in a few words after the example of Miss Klara
Modern who has endeavoured to maintain true Vienna in the 1932, June issue
of Close Up. Really, Japan as a modern state dates only from sixty years ago.
Through this short period, Japan has changed into a civilized and modern-
ized state from a feudal country, by absorbing and digesting the European and
American civilization and culture that have been established in the course of
about 150 years since the industrial revolution which originated in the invention
of a steam engine, by James Watt in 1782. Such a rapid progress has Japan
made that she has not yet completely emancipated herself from many old things
and ideas bequeathed by the previous ages, although she has acquired com-
pletely or at least so externally the civilization of the Western World. Japan
is, in a word, an agglomeration of old and new. This is justification for the
many, queer, irrational, despicable things you have often seen in films ; further-
more, I would daresay that it is very unfortunate both for you and us, Japanese,
that you have never wanted to know and understand Japan of to-day, or more
correctly, the present thoughts and ideas, of the general young Japanese
intelligentia as the brain of the nation, who are struggling especiaUy recently
against the oppression by the old, dogmatic and transcendental to establish
the new, rational and scientific.

Finally, I express my sincere regret over the death of Mr. Harry Alan
Potamkin, great film critic and commentator of the United States of America,
on behalf of the whole circle of the Japanese film critics.

Yasushi Ogino.

Yokohama, Japan.
September, 1933.

THUNDER OVER MEXICO

MR. UPTON SINCLAIR DEFENDS HIMSELF.
{Editor's foreword).

The following letter, relative to the two Manifestos printed in Close Up from
Experimental Cinema, has been received from Mr. Sinclair. Que Viva Mexico,
or as it has been re-named, Thunder Over Mexico, was cut, as most people
are now aware, by Mr. Sol Lesser in Hollywood. We have no wish to suppress
any statement which could be made in defence of such an action, therefore
we are only too glad to print Mr. Sinclair's letter in full. The fact remains,
however, that Mr. Sinclair's letter would have been more valid had he pointed
out which statements — and where — contained " deliberate falsehoods " ;
and, above all, if he had attempted to excuse what remains the cardinal offense
— the cutting of Eisenstein's film by somebody else, no matter how sympathetic
or understanding that cutter may have been. The whole construction and
integrity of any Eisenstein film — as any person who has seen them will know —
lies in his dynamic and revolutionary conception of the film unit. What,
for instance, could Mr. Lesser have known of " internal monologue " ? How
would Mr. Lesser have set about assembling his material to " explode into a
new concept ? " Given that Mr. Lesser knew all about even two such early
underlying principles as these, how could he have made them anything but
his own, and what would they have had to do with Eisenstein ?

Thunder Over Mexico will be a beautiful travelogue, without doubt. At
best it will be unacceptable and false, the plundering of raw material and the
debasement of the only significant intellectual work that has been done in
the cinema for several years. The more beautiful it is the greater will be its
falsity. The film should have been abandoned or completed. There was no
middle course that was not unscrupulous and in its way sacrilege. This and
this alone seems to me the important issue. The political content of the film
is as nothing compared to this. And this is the reason were we glad to print
Experimental Cinema's splendidly vehement protests. If Mr. Sinclair
cares to make any statement which can justify the issue of a film called
Thunder Over Mexico we shall be again only too pleased to print it. But in
such a case as this there is no compromise. If the original film is lost to us
forever, then there must be no film. For Thunder Over Mexico there is no
excuse.

K.M.

Editor, CLOSE UP. October 18, 1933.

26, Litchfield Street,

Charing Cross Road, London, W.C.2.

Dear Sir :

With regard to the statements you have published concerning the Eisen-
stein picture, Thunder Over Mexico : I assume that you do not wish to publish
falsehoods knowingly, or to suppress the facts concerning this matter. Many
of the manifestos which have been sent out in this matter are full of false

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statements, and I am sorry to say that some of the falsehoods have been
deliberate ; that is to say, the persons who wrote the manifestos knew the
truth, because I had told it to them.

The story is a long one, and a book would be needed to give all the details.
Permit me to here summarize very briefly :

(1) Eisenstein's original proposition was to make a "non-political" picture.
He said : "I realise that a political picture could not be made by a Russian in
Mexico, nor could such a picture be shown in the United States." The money
was raised on the basis of a non-political picture and a non-political picture was
made.

(2) The so-called " mutilation " of the film was determined by one
factor — the length of a feature picture which can be shown in an existing
theatre. The entire material as outlined in Eisenstein's scenario would have
taken six or seven hours to run.

(3) In making a selection the most " revolutionary " material was used
and the most " proletarian " : That is to say, the so-called " Hacienda story,"
dealing with the oppression of the peons in the old Diaz days, was used. The
story was cut in exact accord with the scenario and there was then added a
prologue following the Eisenstein scenario, showing the ancient Mayan ruins
and the coming of the Spanish influence. Also an epilogue dealing with modern
Mexico, following the scenario, and using the least " Fascist " elements in that
scenario.

(4) The material omitted consisted, in fact, as follows :

Tens of thousands of feet of a bullfight in Mexico City and other tens of
thousands of feet of a bullfight in Yucatan ; a so-called Tehuantepec story,
portraying a village wedding among the peasants, and, finally, some 50,000 feet
of miscellaneous material of a travelogue character, dealing with the scenery,
buildings, fiestas, religious celebrations, market scenes — in short, everything
that a tourist wandering through Mexico might find picturesque and interesting.
Having viewed all this material several times, each time representing from
thirty-five to forty hours of my time at a cost of several dollars per hour, I
pledge my good name and my good faith to the statement that there is nothing
of the slightest degree " proletarian " in any of this material. How could
there have been, when the Mexican Government officials inspected it and most
of the time sent its official censor along for the explicit purpose of seeing that
nothing of the kind was shot ?

(5) To make the record complete, I will state that in the Eisenstein
scenario there was listed an episode of a revolutionary character, the so-called
" Soldadere Story." The Mexican Government promised the use of the army
for this purpose, but delayed too long to make the necessary arrangements,
and not one foot of this Soldadere Story was ever shot. Needless to say, we
cannot use material which we have not got.

One of the objectors to Thunder Over Mexico wrote in a New York news-
paper as follows :

" At the wind-up we see Mexico concerned with industrial work, marshaling
youth in sports, marches and parades . . . But then, knowing the theories of

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363

the Soviet and its leading citizens, Eisenstein hardly meant this lyrical ending."

Well, the easiest way to answer that is to quote the text of Eisenstein's
own scenario, officially submitted to the Mexican Government and approved.
Page 28, headed " Epilogue," I quote :

" Time and location — modern Mexico. Mexico of today on the ways of
peace and prosperity . . . war of factories, the hissing of work-propellers, the
whistles of work-plants, modern . . . civilized . . . industrial Mexico appears
on the screen. LIFE !— highways, dams, railways . . . the bustle of a big city,
new machinery, new houses, new people, aviators, chauffeurs, engineers,
officers, technicians, students, agriculture experts and the nation's leaders,
the President, generals, Secretaries of State departments."

You will see that it is quite a catalogue of materials and that it is highly
lyrical in tone. It was impossible to use all the material collected and provided
by Eisenstein. We selected those items which seemed least " Fascist " in tone.
We selected three buglers and three drummers of a firemen's band, boy and girl
athletes, street celebrations and factories with glorified labour. We omitted
Government officials — the President with his military staff and generals in
gold braid, all of which was included in the material provided by the Soviet
director.

Sincerely,

Upton Sinclair.

Ill
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OXFORD STREET

FAMOUS

Notices of new films will be sent on receipt of name and address

ORIGINAL VERSIONS

(Under the direction of Miss Elsie Cohen)

CONTINENTAL
FILMS

CINEMA

Presents

(Opp. Warings)

Gerrard 2981

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COMMENT AND REVIEW

CLOSE UP CONTRIBUTORS AND A MURDER

Murder Among Friends, by " Simon." (Wishart. 7/6).

Here is a murder mystery by Oswell Blakeston and Roger Burford !

Now, the first part of Murder Among Friends, which is called The Dialect
of Death, presents the pyschic atmosphere, the strange characters and the
Cornish mystery. The chapter headings of this section do something to teU
the story : Sea Round a House, Twenty Evil Men, A Witch at the Well, Death
Holds the Trumps, Perilous Beach, What Happens by Night ? The second part
of the book, which is called The Search for Truth, makes us conscious of the
deeper purpose behind the detective story.

The authors have their theory regarding the business of the genuine
detective novel, whose plot must always be the revealing of Truth. In the
opinion of O.B. and R.B. there is little merit in the sleuth story which ends with
a great detective appearing at the eleventh-hour and pointing to the culprit.
The book should begin darkly, mysteriously, and the clues should be like small
lamps leading the reader gradually into the daylight of Truth. A conscientious
reader should have a nice feeling of satisfaction when his deduction is confirmed
by the author's conclusion.

Film fans will realise that Murder Among Friends is shaped for a climax :
in fact the fourth and last part of the book, which is called Death Comes to
Dinner, is not divided into chapters, but is told in swiftly alternating para-
graphs. Thus, we naturally discover the influence of the cinema on two writers
who have concerned themselves so much with the cinema.

Detective fans will find more than the usual number of thriUs before the
big Punch, more than the usual number of suspects to be eliminated, and some
entirely new material relating to modern optics.

Those who cannot buy this unusuaUy entertaining book may ask for it at
their libraries : but then they may miss the extraordinarily arresting dust
cover by Francis Bruguiere, which shows the insane face of the hero photo-
graphically reversed so that blood drops are like dark pits.

The combination of Bruguiere, Burford and Blakeston makes Murder
Among Friends a real cineaste's gift for Christmas.

R.D.

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365

A CINEMA ARTS FILM CLUB

A Cinema Arts Film Club has been formed at the Forum Cinema, Villiers
Street, W.C.2. There are various classes of membership ranging from one to
four guineas ; associate and country members, ten shillings and sixpence.
Arrangements are being made for the following amenities for Members.

A Library of books dealing with the art of the film will be available.

Exhibitions will be organised from time to time, and lecturers engaged to
talk about them. Details will be forwarded to members in good time.

A refreshment lounge for members and their friends. Moderate prices.

Writing and smoking room, where members can meet for discussion or to
transact business.

Only the worthwhile British and Continental films will be shown, a pro-
posed list of which is appended here.

We invite suggestions for other films from students, as films of all nations
will figure in our programmes.

In most cases, the new films (first showing in England) will be given seven
days' run for the convenience of provincial and other members.

All performances will be open to members and friends of members.
Associate members will also enjoy full privileges of the Club, only these will
have to pay for admission to the film performances.

For comfort and efficiency, membership will be limited to available
accommodation, therefore all are requested to make early application.

Futures include, we hope (booking are not confirmed on some of these) : The End
of St. Petersburgh, The House of Death (first time in England), Westfront 1914,
Kameradschaft, Battle Cruiser Potemkin, White Hell of Pitz Palu, Flesh and the
Devil, The Informer (a Robinson prod.), The Scarlet Letter, The Windjammer,
The Immortal Vagabond, Avalanche, Men Like These, The Last Company , White
Shadows in the South Seas, The Homecoming, Loves Awakening (Mastersingers
of Nurenberg), Student of Prague, Forgotten Faces, The Prince of Adventurers
(with Mosjoukine), The Iron Mask, The Circus, Waxworks, Gosta Berling, The
Crazy Ray (Clair), The Last Laugh, A Cottage on Dartmoor, Two Worlds, Home-
coming, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Life Begins, An American Tragedy, Thou
Shalt Not, The Spy, Nanook of the North, The Three Loves, A Daughter of Destiny ,
The Gold Rush, The Hands of Orlac. And many silent films first time in England,
such as a beautiful French film dealing with the life of Chopin, which will prob-
ably be the first to be given a seven day run very shortly.

Josie Lederer.

PARIS MARGIN NOTE

Paris is stripped of its young cineastes : they can no longer afford to sit
around the Dome tables, dropping culture pearls of wisdom from their mouths.
So, we were quite relieved to learn that Dreyer's Vampire was being passed at
one of the salles, as we knew our kino experience in the new Paris would be
limited. We snatched a quick drink with Richard Thoma (toasting better
poems and worse trees) , and clattered across empty Paris in an expensive taxi.
Arrived at the cinema, we found that Vampire had been withdrawn a week

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earlier : it was sharp confirmation of the disorganisation of cinema Paris, for
it was the first time we have ever obtained false information from La Semaine
A Paris. We slipped, therefore, into a tiny neighbourhood hall to see the
banned Paramount picture, The Island of Doctor Moreau.

Why has this picture been banned in England ? It's one of the real
slowies and could only send an audience to pleasant dreams. Charles Laughton
plays Doctor Moreau and Kathleen Burke is the Panther Woman. Perhaps
it was Thoma who remembered, afterwards, the epigram, " Once a lady,
always an acrobat."

The dubbing in these American pictures is done pretty well, except that
the voices are generaUy recorded from a fixed base so that there is no sound
perspective. But the French trailers for the American movies are quite
sensationally mixed in purpose. Each company seems to have its own formula
for trailers, and all the trailers issued for that firm are visually packed up in the
same boxes. Incidentally, Deslaw told us, at a chance meeting, that he was now
concerned mostly with the dubbing of American talkies : as for the trailers
. . . well, the boys in the Luxembourg solve the problem of the etiquette
of the seasons by playing fotoball with a cricket bat.

The banned German picture, Le Testament du Dr. Mabuse, was running at
another neighbourhood house. It's an uneven affair which makes rather a
bad impression of the visuals of madness, yet, in some gripping scenes, has the
most possessed sound that was nicely scaring. The laboratory which printed
the neg. got a credit title !

Sound apparatus in the small cinemas is generally efficient, although no
proprietor has troubled to alter the size of the screen to the new shape. WaUs
are still decorated with posters, while the hard seats of cheap wood still provide
adequate means for a protest when the movie does not meet with favour.

We watched Pabst shoot some scenes for De Haut en Bas : alas ! we did not
see Catherine Hessling working. Pabst was very excited about going to
Warner Brothers in Hollywood, but he moved about and controlled his under-
lings with perfect crispness. We spoke about L'Orgue des ondes, and the special
instrument at the Paris radio. It packs into the small corner of a room and
has the power and resonance of a monster pipe organ : undoubtedly, it wiU be
introduced into the new cinemas because it is comparatively inexpensive, and
because the lamps, which produce the waves, are guaranteed for fifteen years.

The harvest of grapes has been so abundant that, at the railway stations, they are
practically giving away glasses Of fresh juice, crushed from the vans of grapes which
otherwise might be dumped. We developed a liking for the juice, and so discovered the
little automatic film machines on the big stations. For fifty centimes we could watch,
in a small dark square, the efforts of the latest " le record man."

OSWELL BLAKESTON.

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367

By the request of

The executive Committee of the Second International Exhibition of Cinematograph
Art, organized by the International Institute of Educational Cinematography at Rome
and under the auspices of the " Biennal " International Art Exhibition of Venice.
We are publishing below the rules pertaining to this Exhibition for our English readers.

REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE II. INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION
OF CINEMATOGRAPHY— .VENICE, AUGUST 1934.

Admission of Italian Films.

1. — In accordance with the art regulations of the Biennial Exhibition of
Art, admission to the II. International Exhibition of Cinematography is by
invitation only, issued by the Presidency.

2. — The choice of the film producing corporations to be invited is made on
the proposal of the Technical Executive Committee.

3. — The Presidency reserves the right to reject films judged lacking in
artistic dignity, or such as would wound the feelings of the country in which the
exhibition takes place. The decision of the Presidency is final.

Admission of Foreign Films.

4. — The International participation in the Exhibition of Cinematography is
effected through syndicates and institutions that exist in the different countries
for the protection, promotion and control of the cinematograph industry.

5. — The Presidency, however, reserves the right to invite personally
" regisseurs," artistic and scenic directors and actors, clubs or institutions that
are in any way concerned in film life, to take part in the Exhibition with such
subjects, shorts and pictures, the character and special artistic nature of which
fulfils the requisite of the Exhibition.

6. — -The syndicates or institutions of the different producing nations will
act as delegates to the Biennial, and will take charge of the choice, collection,
and despatch of the material, in good time.

7. — Invitations will be issued together with the present regulations, and
the acceptance on the part of the corporation signifies explicit adhesion to the
present regulations.

Notification, Transport and Packing.

8. — Films must be ready for despatch to Venice not later than July 1st,
1934. By the same date the corporations and artists invited must forward to
the Secretary of the Biennial the exact title of each film ; a clear statement of
the names of the regisseurs, of the principal actors, a brief summary of each film
and all particulars that may be useful for the comprehension and illustration of
the subject. A certain number of pictures will also have to be sent for
advertising purposes.

9. — The cost of carriage from the producing country to Venice will be borne
by the Exhibition. It will also bear the return carriage expenses.

10. — Competitors must carefully pack films in strong metal boxes and, at
the same time, insure the films, for the duration of the Exhibition against all
risks from fire or damages while travelling.

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11. — The Biennial Committee will only accept responsibility for the ex-
ceptional wear and tear of the film material. In case of destruction or damage
of parts or all of the film, the Biennial will pay the cost of that part of the
positive developed copy which has been destroyed or exceptionally worn or
ruined.

12. — If, at the close of the Exhibition, the films are to be sent to a desti-
nation different from that of the origin, the producer loses all right of free
transport, and all expenses for packing, transport and fire insurance will be
endured by the producer. The change of destination must be notified to the
Secretary's office not later than the closing date of the Exhibition.

Order of Projection — Other Manifestations.

13. — The order of projection of the films is decided by the Presidency, and
this decision is final.

14. — The Presidency wiU organise side by side with the projection of the
films, other manifestations, such as lectures, debates, etc., on the artistic and
social tendencies of the pictures and the cinema in general, gathering producers,
technicians and regisseurs to discuss the artistic possibilities of cinematography
in the life of to-day.

Prizes.

15. — The Exhibition will award Medals, Diplomas and other prizes to those
works of outstanding merit and success which meet with the approval
of the public and of the critics. The awarding of these prizes is not intended to
signify a definition of the greater or lesser value of competing subjects, neither
will these prizes define a scale of importance of the films shown to the public.
The prizes will be awarded with regard to any outstanding feature of a certain
production, or to its success in artistic cinematographic experiments, or to a
new impulse given by a producer, regisseur, or actor in a certain production.

Sundry Regulations.

16. — Representatives of producing firms will be entitled to a permanent
ticket allowing free entrance to the projections shown by the Exhibition.

17. — All communications must be addressed to the Secretary's office of
the " Biennale " (Palazzo Ducale) Venice.

THE PRESIDENT OF THE BIENNIAL
GIUSEPPE VOLPI DI MISURATA
GENERAL COMMITTEE
H. E. Don Gabriel Alomar, Spanish Ambassador to H. M. the King of Italy,
J. W. Brown (Great Britain), Luciano de Feo (Italy), Charles Delac
(France), Will. Hays (United States of America), Nikolaus Kozma (Hungary),
H. E. Hajime Matsushima, Ambassador of H. M. the Emperor of fapan to
H. M. the King of Italy, Richard Ordynski (Poland), Walther Plugge
(Germany), H. E. Vladimiro Potemkine, U. S. S. R. Ambassador to H. M. the
King of Italy, D. Van Staveren (Holland), G. A. Witt (Austria).

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Luciano de Feo, President, Nicola de Pirro, Giovanni Dettori, Eugenio
Giovannetti, Antonio Maraini, Giorgio Michetti, Giacomo Paolucci de'
Calboli Barone Gino Pierantoni, Filippo Sacchi, Attilio Fontana
(Secretary) .

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369

THE NEW BELGIAN WEEKLY

La Cmegraphie beige must be singularly useful to all those concerned with
the practical side of cinematography, and particularly to those who share the
interests and the problems of the manager of cinemas and the hirer of films, and
desire, therefore, an anthological survey of current happenings and possi-
bilities. In the number that has just come in, there are several useful and
interesting features.

Amongst them is a report of the findings of a Brussels newspaper, whose
editor recently conceived the idea of asking aU the cinema-managers in the
town to state their opinions of the causes of the threatened crisis in film ex-
ploitation. The responses were of course various and contradictory, but all
are agreed on four main points : taxation, which can amount to 60 % of the
takings ; the difficulty, in a period of crisis, of paying off the cost of sonorisa-
tion plus the running costs which are now much higher than in the past ; the
interdictions of the Board of Control, reducing takings by 40 % ; finally, the
disastrous multiplication of haUs. It is indicated that although the cinema has
now become, for everyone, a necessary superfluity and has therefore remained
relatively-untouched by the crisis, the town cannot supply, nightly, the 368,200
persons required to fill the now available seats, and that only the disappearance
of 100 of the halls at present in use can restore equilibrium. The reduction in
prices just now being practised by certain managers in the hope of attracting
visitors, is said to be an illusory remedy.

The relatively small Belgian capital, where fruitful enquiries and illu-
minating experiments can so conveniently be made, has doubtless provided a
picture of the state of affairs existing in all the European capitals to-day.

The film criticisms are admirable for their quiet, inclusive commentary :
" A careful, well-made film," one reads, " sympathetic and agreeable ; or,
" An unpretentious film, charming by reason of — ", and so forth. Mediocrity,
so strangely almost everywhere else a term of abuse, is here honestly presented
side by side with its divergent neighbours.

In this charming periodical, weU supplied with stills, there is not a single
superfluous word and to read it through is to acquire, most pleasantly owing to
the impeccable typography and lay-out, a knowledge of all the leading events
in filmdom, present and to come.

HOUND & HORN

announces for early publication:

AMERICAN (SWEET AND HOT) DANCING
INTRODUCTION TO RUSSIAN PAINTING

MASKS OF EZRA POUND

HENRY JAMES AND THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR
THE AMERICAN SHORT STORY, a review

YOUNGER AMERICAN NOVELISTS

THE BURNING CACTUS, a story

THE FOOLISH VIRGINS, a story

Roger Pryor Dodge
Lydia Nadejena
R. P. Blackmur
Newton Arvin
Charles Flato
Martha Gruening
Stephen Spender
Adrienne Monier

A Series of Topical Letters from abroad

IRELAND . . Sean O'Faolain SPAIN . .
FRANCE . . Rene Daumal ENGLAND

POEMS . . by Grant Code, Dudley Fitts, J. E. Scruggs, Don Stanford, etc.
CHRONICLES . PHOTOGRAPHS . . BOOK REVIEWS

M. J. Benardete
Peter Quennell

The SPRING, 1934 issue of HOUND & HORN will be devoted
entirely to HENRY JAMES. Part of his hitherto unpublished
scenario of THE AMBASSADORS will be published, along with
critical articles on the work of HENRY JAMES. This issue will
retail at one dollar a copy, but will be sent at the usual
price to subscribers.

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370

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A I I TMr klDW/ D^^^t/C 0311 be examined in com-

/M-L I flL INC W D\JKJl\D fort, and chosen easily at

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subject. Write for our Catalogues and Lists.

Df\f*\\SQ f"*^KI A DT ^ w^e selection of books on

DvywINJ V^IN I . Painting, Sculpture, Architecture

and Decoration will be found in the Art Department on the Ground
Floor.

BOOKS ON THE CINEMA IK

both critical and practical, can be seen at Bumpus's, and we shall be
glad to send lists to those interested in this subject.

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Two Additions to a Film Library*

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Brunei: FILMCRAFT. 3/6d. Postage 6d. extra.

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371

Just Published.

EPIC OF CAPTAIN SCOTT

MARTIN LINDSAY

Illustrated

si-

OUTBREAK OF WAR

E. F. BENSON

Illustrated

si-

" If the other volumes of Mr. Peter Davies' new series, called
' Great Occasions,' are as good as the first two, he is going
to surpass that excellent series of Short Biographies."

Campion Mackenzie in the Daily Mail

FEMALE PIPINGS IN EDEN

DAME ETHEL SMYTH, Mus. Doc.

8/6

HE CAME TO ENGLAND

A Self Portrait
G. J. RENIER

{Author of " Oscar Wilde," " The English, Are They Human ? " etc., etc.)

10/6

NAVAL BALLADS and SEA

SONGS

Illustrated and selected by CECIL LAWSON
15/-

PETER DAVIES LTD. 3o Henrietta street

372

These books should be
in your collection :

Does Capital Punishment

Exist ? By Dr. Hanns Sachs

On the face of it the question seems needless. It must be
realised, however, that the act of hanging, shooting,
electrocuting, can be a riddance but not a corrective. Dr.
Sachs, an eminent psychologist, brings ample material to
prove that " Capital Punishment " can be only a drastic
failure of Justice. Absorbing reading.

Price 1/-

The Lighthearted Student

By Bryher and Trade Weiss

Film Problems of Soviet

MtUSSia By Bryher

A record of the silent film in Russia, during the most
significant period of its development. Essential for
students and film-historians. Almost out of print.
Price 6/- Postage ^.d.

Bound Volumes of Close Up

The encyclopaedia of film progress. All volumes obtainable
(except Vol. I) at prices ranging from 10/6 to 25/-.
Particulars on application.

373

" Mr. Cousins is a man of vast practical experience and I
am happy to be able to endorse the majority of his views." —

JACK HULBERT

FILMLAND
IN FERMENT

" Startling changes are impending,"
says the author-E. G. COUSINS

informally that it is as if a native of Filmland were pi...

, . . .... Edition

conducting us on a tour of his territory and helping

us to draw our own conclusions therefrom. Start- 6/- net
ling organic changes, taking place beneath the calm
surface of film-production, are revealed and dis-
cussed. The book gives a clear, unbiassed and
authoritative account of film-production as it has
been, is now, and will be. No one inside or out-
side the industry can fail to profit by its matter or
be entertained by its manner.

WITH A PREFACE BY JACK HULBERT

DENIS ARCHER

6 OLD GLOUCESTER STREET
LONDON, W.C.1

374

A POPULAR ACCOUNT

OF THE

AMATEUR CINE
MOVEMENT

IN GREAT BRITAIN

Marjorie A. Lovell Burgess

Author of "Great Possessions," Etc.
WITH A FOREWORD BY

G. A. ATKINSON

Illustrated 5/- net.

In the world of the cinema the amateur movement is rapidly
assuming an importance similar to that of the amateur
dramatic movement in the legitimate theatre. Groups of
enthusiasts everywhere are coming together to form
amateur cinematograph clubs ; individual cine-camera owners
are making continual experiment ,- competitions are being
arranged and prizes offered ; everywhere there is a
growing activity which is often achieving splendid results.

Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd.

100 SOUTHWARK STREET, LONDON

375

SPECIAL OFFER

OF:

BACK NUMBERS

Owing to restriction of space we are obliged to clear unbound
numbers of Close Up previous to 1931. We are unable to
bind more sets as several numbers of each year are out
of print.

Avail able
Three issues of 1927.

About seven issues of 1928, covering the
early Russian film and the most important
developments of the silent German cinema.

A few odd numbers of 1929, with articles
on the beginnings of the sound film.

A very few numbers of 1930. The end
months of this year are completely out of
print. 1930 covers however the most im-
portant period of sound film development.

Any three of the above will be sent to any address in
England at a cost including postage of half-a-crown, or to
any address abroad for three shillings. We have no copies
left of March and December 193 1, but a very few copies of
June and September. These issues are available at five
shillings in England for the two, including postage, and five
and sixpence abroad.

tv^-x^-vt 26 Litchfield Street,

JT UUJL Charing Cross Road, London, W.C. 2

Contributors to

Vol. X

PAGE

Blake, Frances :

Something New in the Motion Piature Theatre . . . . . . . . . . 154

Blakeston, Oswell :

Pseudomorphic Film . . . . '. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Teaching Music by the Abstract Film .. .. .. . . .. .. .. 161

Films and Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Pseudomorphic Film, Number Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Manifesto on the Documentary Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Blakeston, Oswell and Burford, J.:

New Film by Deslaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Blakeston, Oswell and Burford, R. :

Reality Isn't True . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Bond, Ralph :

Two Documentaries . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . 322

Bryher :

What Shall you do in the War ? . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Burford, Roger :

Published Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Costa, Alves :

Portugal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Coxhead, Elizabeth :

• A Film Actor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Towards a Co-operative Cinema .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 133

Cunard, Nancy :

Scottsboro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Daugherty, Frank :

The Pabst Arrival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Eisenstein, S. M. :

Cinematography With Tears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

An American Tragedy . . . . .... . . . . . . . . . . 109

Fairthorne, Robert, A. :

The Nature of Film Material 138

Herring, Robert :

Fan Males .... . . . . . . .... . . . . .... 40

Howard, Clifford :

Cinema Psychology . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . 71

Storm Over Hollywood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Film Morals . . . . . . . . . . . . . : . . . . 271

Symphonic Cinema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Hughes, Pennethorne :

The Historical Inception of Stage and Film . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Kraszna-Krausz, A. :

Beginning of the Year in Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Lenauer, Jean :

Three Paris Films . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . 54

Talkie Diseases of French Cinema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

377

10587

184

Contributors to Vol. X (contd.)

PAGE

H.A.M. :

Why War ? Einstein and Freud, International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation 159

Macpherson, Kenneth :

N#tes on Five Bruguiere Photographs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Maugard, A. B. :

Open Letter Concerning Thunder Over Mexico . . . . . . . . . . 256

Metzner, Erno :

The Travelling Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 82

Moore, Marianne :

Fiction or Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Lot in Sodom .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 318

Ogino, Y. :

Japanese Film Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Japan as Seen in Films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Potamkin, H. A. :

The Year of Eclipse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Pudovkin, V. I. :

. The Actor's Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 227

Richardson, Dorothy, M. :

Continuous Performance .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 130

Santar, Karel :

Prague Castle and Other Czech Shorts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Seton, Marie :

The Making of the Russian " Star " . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Turkish Prelude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Sinclair, Upton :

Letter concerning Thunder Over Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Weinberg, Herman, G. :

The Foreign Language Film in the United States . . . . . . . . . . 167

Lot in Sodom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

The Emperor Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Weiss, Trude :

Photographs in Vienna

The Primeval Age of Cinema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

378

Contents of Vol. X

A Film Actor. Elizabeth Coxhead
An American Tragedy. S. M. Eisenstein

Beginning of the Year in Germany. A. Kraszna-Krausz

Cinema Psychology. Clifford Howard
Cinematography With Tears. S. M. Eisenstein
Continuous Performance. Dorothy Richardson

Fan Males. Robert Herring
Fiction or Nature. Marianne Moore . .
Film Morals. Clifford Howard. .
Films and Values. Oswell Blakeston . .

Japan as Seen in Films. Y. Ogino
Japanese Film Problems. Y. Ogino

Letter Concerning Thunder Over Mexico. Upton Sinclair
Lot in Sodom. Marianne Moore
Lot in Sodom. Herman G. Weinberg

Manifesto of Experimental Cinema

Manifesto on the Documentary Film. Oswell Blakeston

New Film by Deslaw. Oswell Blakeston and J. Burford
Note on Five Bruguiere Photographs. Kenneth Macpherson

Open Letter Concerning Thunder Over Mexico. A. B. Maugard

Photographs in Vienna. Trude Weiss
Portugal. Alves Costa.

Prague Castle and Other Czech Shorts. Karel Santar
Pseudomorphic Film, Number One. Oswell Blakeston
Pseudomorphic Film, Number Two. Oswell Blakeston

Published Scenarios. Roger Burford . . . . . . . . . .

Really Isn't True. Oswell Blakeston and Roger Burford
Scottsboro. Nancy Cunard

Something New in the Motion Picture Theatre. Frances Blake
Storm Over Hollywood. Clifford Howard
Symphonic Cinema. Clifford Howard . .

Talkie Diseases of French Cinema. J. Lenauer . . . .
Teaching Music by the Abstract Film. Oswell Blakeston
The Actor's Work. V. I. Pudovkin
The Emperor Jones. Herman Weinberg

The Foreign Language Film in the United States. Herman Weinberg

The Historical Inception of Stage and Film. Pennethorne Hughes

The Making of the Russian Star. Marie Seton

The Nature of Film Material. Robert A. Fairthorne

The Pabst Arrival. Frank Daugherty . .

The Primeval Age of Cinema. Trude Weiss

The Travelling Camera. Erno Metzner

The Year of the Eclipse. H. A. Potamkin

Three Paris Films. Jean Lenauer . . ....

Towards A Co-operative Cinema. E. Coxhead
Turkish Prelude. Marie Seton
Two Documentaries. Ralph Bond

What Shall You Do In The War ? Bryher

Why War ? Einstein and Freud, International Institute of Intellectual

operation, H.A.M.

379

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